Willem de Rooij lives and works in Berlin and has since 2006 been Professor of Fine Arts at the Städelschule. His work investigates the production, contextualization and interpretation of images through a variety of media. Appropriations and collaborations are fundamental to Willem de Rooij's artistic method and his projects have stimulated new research in art history and ethnography. With Jeroen de Rijke (1970–2006) he represented the Netherlands at the Venice Biennale in 2005. Willem de Rooij is visiting advisor at the Rijksakademie since 2015. In 2016, he co-founded BPA // Berlin program for artists.

Recent solo exhibitions include Die Sammlung betrachten & An Insert by Willem de Rooij, Akademie der Künste, Vienna; Pierre Verger in Suriname, Portikus, Frankfurt am Main; Whiteout at Kunst-Werke Berlin – KW Institute for Contemporary Art; Ebb Rains at IMA Brisbane; Entitled at MMK Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt/Main; The Impassioned No at Consortium, Dijon and Bouquet IX at the Jewish Museum, New York. Recent group exhibitions include A War in The Distance, King Vulture, steirischer herbst, Graz; Errata, MAIIAM, Chiang Mai; Mindful Circulations at the BDL Museum, Mumbai; Stories of Almost Everyone at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Jakarta Biennale 2017; EVA International – Ireland's Biennial, Limerick; the 10th Shanghai Biennale and Hollandaise at Raw Material Company, Dakar. Willem de Rooij’s work is part of the collections of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, MUMOK in Vienna, Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, Centre Pompidou in Paris, MOCA in Los Angeles, and MOMA in New York.