Dirk De Bruycker was born in Ghent, Belgium on February 20, 1955. Between 1964-73 he studied at the City Academy of Fine Arts, Sint Niklaas, Belgium. Between 1973-77 he studied at St. Lucas Institute of Visual Arts, Ghent, Belgium, where he received his Master of Arts.

He relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico in the late 1970s, studying at Tamarind Institute at the University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM between 1979 and 80 and then entered the Graduate Program Printmaking Department at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 1980-81.

During the next few decades he divided his time between New Mexico and Granada, Nicaragua. De Bruycker was a recipient of the prestigious Visual Artist Fellowship Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and had over 45 solo shows, the first one in Belgium in 1981. Most recently he had been exhibiting his work in Santa Fe, Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boca Raton, Scottsdale, Jackson Hole and Ketchum, Idaho.

His work is in numerous private and public collections including the New Mexico Museum of Art, the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Missouri, and the Ministry of Culture of the Flemish Community.

Dirk De Bruycker died in Santa Fe, New Mexico on July 26, 2015