Justus de Rode (b. 1997) is a visual artist based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. While working across various media, his practice is rooted in photography. With an academic background in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (BSc) and Film & Photographic Studies (MA), his practise reflects a research-driven and cross-disciplinary approach. Growing up in a painter’s family, by contrast, fostered a visual sensibility that resonates in the introspective and pictorial qualities of his work. De Rode describes his work as an ongoing fight against the photographic, questioning fundamental properties of the medium while oscillating between analysis and affect. This tension between reason and emotion lies at the core of his artistic inquiry, often metaphorically reflected in subjects drawn from ecology, geology, natural history, and nature itself.

Education

2020 - 2022 MA Film & Photographic Studies, Leiden University, Leiden
2016 - 2020 BSc Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam
2019 Minor Art History, University of Amsterdam

Selected exhibitions

2025 Open Doors Gallery, groupshow, London (UK)
2025 Pan Art Fair, groupshow, FLAT//LAND Gallery, Amsterdam (NL)
2025 FLAT//LAND Gallery, groupshow, Amsterdam (NL)
2025 Art Rotterdam, duo, Rotterdam (NL)
2025 IN-DEPENDANCE, duo, Antwerp (BE)
2024 De Bouwput, duo, Amsterdam (NL)
2024 Boox.Space, duo, Haarlem (NL)
2023 Pictura, Solo, Groningen (NL)
2023 The Gallery Club, duo, Amsterdam (NL)
2022 Art Noord art fair, groupshow, Museum Belvedere, Heerenveen (NL)
2022 The Gallery Club, groupshow, Amsterdam (NL)
2022 Gallery What Art Can Do, Solo, Amsterdam (NL)

Selected press

2025 Focus Magazine
2024 GalleryViewer: Het atelier van.. (click to read)
2024 Musée Magazine
2024 ZONE Collective book
2023 Dagblad van het Noorden
2023 PS het Parool
2023 Museum Tijdschrift
2023 Kunstkrant
2023 Groninger Gezinsbode
2022 Het Parool

Awards / Grants

2025 OD Photo Prize | Juror’s Choice Award
2024 Fonds Kwadraat
2024 Shortlist Stichting Oog op de Natuur
2023 Het Cultuurfonds
2022 Shortlist Beirut Image Festival, Mycelium
2021 GUP New Talent

Books

2023 Mycelium, Self-published.
2021 Godspeed, PIP.

Talks

2025 Teylers museum: Symposium Plant & Insect