DAN REES
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EXHIBITIONS
> The Confidence-Man
> End Note
> French Cricket
> Somewhere Near The Black Mountain Hills
> September Show
> The Confidence-Man
> End Note
> French Cricket
> Somewhere Near The Black Mountain Hills
> September Show
“Keep your art soft and sweet. You might have to eat it.” Inscribed in white cursive letters on a bright blue cake, the words from this 2005 piece encapsulate the spirit behind much of Dan Rees’s young, yet prolific, production. Filled with references to Conceptual art practices—Daniel Buren’s legendary stripes that sloppily spill over onto the wall behind badly painted copies (“Two Stripey Paintings,” 2009) or analog media like slide and 16 mm film projections and B&W documentary photography, as in the 2006 series, “Black and White Things in Black and White,”— his work is accessible to a public specialized in rooting out its numerous art historical references and citations. And yet the impulse behind such an exercise is a far more humbling (and ultimately ambitious) process of shifting through the muddle of what has been handed down to a young artist to eventually make something of one’s own: in this case, something funny, and gently irreverent, and earnest.
With his most recent work, Rees aspires to a move away from the hermeticism and elitism of the art world, with a return to the real world with its popular cultural references—well-attired ‘80s football Casuals or cricketer David Gower’s unruly hair to name a few—and messy, dirty materials like plasticine or the artex plaster that adorns his grandmother’s ceiling in Wales and thousands of other working class interiors across the UK. The protagonist of the current exhibition is a frog named Charles, an erudite dandy who engages in posh and leisurely activities like playing cricket (badly of course, because he is French) and reading poetry, although he is eternally frustrated by a longing to fulfill his creative potential, trapped as he is by intellectual detachment and the physical constraints of the tiny monitor that contains his digitally constructed image. Nearby a disembodied clay head spins around on a turntable perched atop a homemade totem pole—a vernacular art form legible to even the most unaccustomed contemporary art viewer—in a vertiginous movement Rees describes as a feeling of freedom “between what you believe in and what you are forced to accept, between your ideas and dreams and the dead forms and phantoms.” It’s like killing your idols but doing it softly.
Dan Rees (b. 1982 Swansea, U.K.), lives and works in Berlin. Rees studied at the Staatliche Hochschule fur Bildende Künste Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main 2007-9, and graduated from Camberwell College of Arts, London in 2004.
Recent solo exhibitions include: ‘Dan Rees’, Zinger Presents, Amsterdam (2010); ‘They Don’t Make Them Like This Anymore’, T293, Naples (2009); ‘Dan Rees / Fredrik Værslev - Shelf Paintings (Pottery in October)’, Standard (Oslo) (2009); ‘Junk On a Thing’, Johan Berggren Gallery, Malmö (2009); Art Statements, Art 40 Basel (with T293, Naples)(2009).
Recent group exhibitions include: ‘Exhibition, Exhibition’ (curated by Adam Carr), Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2010); ‘Before and After’, Balice Hertling (2010), Paris; ‘A Very, Very Long Cat’, Wallspace Gallery, New York (2010); ‘Berlin Los Angeles A Tale of Two (other) Cities’, Massimo De Carlo, Milan (2010); ‘Richard Prince and the Revolution’, ProjecteSD, Barcelona (curated by Jonathan Monk) (2009); ‘Without’, Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris (2009); ‘Some Time Waiting’, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris (2009).
With his most recent work, Rees aspires to a move away from the hermeticism and elitism of the art world, with a return to the real world with its popular cultural references—well-attired ‘80s football Casuals or cricketer David Gower’s unruly hair to name a few—and messy, dirty materials like plasticine or the artex plaster that adorns his grandmother’s ceiling in Wales and thousands of other working class interiors across the UK. The protagonist of the current exhibition is a frog named Charles, an erudite dandy who engages in posh and leisurely activities like playing cricket (badly of course, because he is French) and reading poetry, although he is eternally frustrated by a longing to fulfill his creative potential, trapped as he is by intellectual detachment and the physical constraints of the tiny monitor that contains his digitally constructed image. Nearby a disembodied clay head spins around on a turntable perched atop a homemade totem pole—a vernacular art form legible to even the most unaccustomed contemporary art viewer—in a vertiginous movement Rees describes as a feeling of freedom “between what you believe in and what you are forced to accept, between your ideas and dreams and the dead forms and phantoms.” It’s like killing your idols but doing it softly.
Dan Rees (b. 1982 Swansea, U.K.), lives and works in Berlin. Rees studied at the Staatliche Hochschule fur Bildende Künste Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main 2007-9, and graduated from Camberwell College of Arts, London in 2004.
Recent solo exhibitions include: ‘Dan Rees’, Zinger Presents, Amsterdam (2010); ‘They Don’t Make Them Like This Anymore’, T293, Naples (2009); ‘Dan Rees / Fredrik Værslev - Shelf Paintings (Pottery in October)’, Standard (Oslo) (2009); ‘Junk On a Thing’, Johan Berggren Gallery, Malmö (2009); Art Statements, Art 40 Basel (with T293, Naples)(2009).
Recent group exhibitions include: ‘Exhibition, Exhibition’ (curated by Adam Carr), Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2010); ‘Before and After’, Balice Hertling (2010), Paris; ‘A Very, Very Long Cat’, Wallspace Gallery, New York (2010); ‘Berlin Los Angeles A Tale of Two (other) Cities’, Massimo De Carlo, Milan (2010); ‘Richard Prince and the Revolution’, ProjecteSD, Barcelona (curated by Jonathan Monk) (2009); ‘Without’, Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris (2009); ‘Some Time Waiting’, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris (2009).
 Dan Rees 'Shaker Peg Painting' (Triptych), 2011 Oil on linen, wooden peg rails Installation view at T293, Naples | | Dan Rees `Ventricles´ 28 June - 30 July 2011 Galerie Andreas Huber, Vienna | | Dan Rees ‘Gardening Leave’ (installation view at Arteba, Buenos Aires) > more information about the show | | ‘The Confidence Man’, 2011 Curated by Gianni Jetzer (installation view at Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin) | | Dan Rees ‘Shakin’ Peg Rails (And The Sunsets)’ (installation view at Wallspace, New York; photo by James Ewing) > more information about the show | | Dan Rees ‘Shaker Peg Painting I’, 2010 Oil on linen, shaker peg rail 51 x 47 x 4.25 inches Unique REES-2010-0081 (photo by James Ewing) > more information about the show | | Dan Rees ‘Shaker Peg Painting VI’, 2010 Oil on linen, metal hooks 76.5 x 53 x 5.75 inches Unique REES-2010-0086 (photo by James Ewing) > more information about the show | | Dan Rees ‘Clay Garden V’, 2010 Clay, vases, and plasticine on found wood shelf 22.5 x 35.x 10 inches Unique REES-2010-0089 (photo by James Ewing) > more information about the show | | Dan Rees ‘Untitled’, 2010 19 primed canvases, spray paint FIAC 2010, Cour Carrée du Louvre, 21-24 October 2010 (installation view at New Galerie, Paris; photo by Aurelien Mole) | | Dan Rees ‘Stripey Pads’, 2010 5 Cricket pads, spray paint 62 x 24 x 10 cm (each) Unique REES-2010-0069 (detail) > more images | | Dan Rees ‘Red Dream’, 2010 Chair, clay, pants, t-shirt 85 x 58 x 52 cm Unique REES-2010-0070 | | Dan Rees ‘Artex Painting’, 2011 Oil on canvas 82 x 62 cm Unique REES-2010-0141 > more images | | Dan Rees ‘Clay Garden IV’, 2010 Cricket pad, clay, vases, plasticine 57 (H) x 57 (L) x 24 (W) cm Unique REES-2010-0066 | | Dan Rees ‘Totem for David I.G.’, 2010 Wooden post, dishes, record player, clay, beer bottle, glasses, plasticine, cricket ball Unique REES-2010-0067 > more images | | Dan Rees ‘Rope’, 2010 Cricket rope, Kitchen 78.5 cm x 79.5 cm (R); 94.5 x 69.5 cm (L); 220 m (Length of rope) Unique REES-2010-0068 | | Dan Rees ‘Shalom Shalom’, 2010 Framed c-print, marker 43 x 32 cm (framed) Edition of 3 REES-2010-0076 | | Dan Rees ‘Charles the Frog’ (collaboration with Chris Phillips), 2010 Animation; 2 mins, 16 secs Edition of 5 REES-2010-0077 > extract | | Dan Rees ‘The Artist’s Artist’s Artist’, 2010 Chair, garbage bag, electronic equipment, record player, plasticine, hanging rack, acrylic paint on plastic sheets Dimension variable Unique REES-2010-0057 > more images | | Dan Rees ‘Clay Garden III’, 2010 Found vases, clay 30 x 30 cm Unique REES-2010-0064 | | Dan Rees ‘Cadmium Yellow, Medium Hue, Flesh Tint, Dioxazine Purple, Bright Aqua Green, Red Vermillon, Payne’s Gray, Phtalocyanine Green and a Little Bit Of Black’, 2010 Acrylic on canvas and wall 140 x 100 cm Unique (installation view at New Galerie, Paris) | | Dan Rees ‘Payne’s Grey and Vermillion’, 2010 Acrylic on canvas and wall 101,6 x 142,2 cm (40” x 56”) REES-2010-0051 (installation view at Wallspace, New York) | | Dan Rees ‘Armory Poster’, 2010 Silkscreen print on paper Edition of 10 REES-2010-0055 | | Dan Rees ‘Untitled’, 2010 Plasticine, wood 69,5 x 69,5 cm Unique REES-2010-0052 > more images | | Dan Rees ‘If It Looks Like It And Feels Like It’, 2009 3 sculptures (plasticine and glass vases) REES-2009-0045 Unique Collection Museum Ludwig Cologne | | Dan Rees ‘If It Looks Like It And Feels Like It’, 2009 Plasticine and plinthe 38 x 30 x 30 cm Unique REES-2009-0029 | | Dan Rees ‘Cadmium Red’ (painting), ‘Clay Garden II’ (sculpture), 2009 Acrylic on canvas and wall 60 x 40 cm (canvas) Found vase, clay, plasticine 79 x 20 x 20 cm (installation view at T293, Naples) | | Dan Rees ‘A Good Idea Is A Good Idea (Morandi)’, 2011 Acrylic paint, vinyl record, record sleeve 35 x 35 x 3 cm (frame size) Unique REES-2011-0166 > more information and image | | Dan Rees ‘Two Stripey Paintings’, 2009 2 canvases, paint 50 x 50 cm (each) Unique REES-2009-0039 | | Dan Rees ‘Something Lost In The Back Seat Of A Car’, 2009 16 mm film, colour, silent; 3 mins Edition of 5 + 2 AP REES-2009-0031 | | Dan Rees ‘Shelf Paintings (Pottery in October #1)’ (with Fredrik Vaerslev), 2009 Spray paint on plywood birch shelf, brass screws and hinges / Ceramic objects Panel: 76 x 54 x 16 cm Ceramic objects: 20 x 13 x 13 cm (left), 22 x 12 x 12 cm (right) (installation view at Standard, Oslo) > more images | | Dan Rees ‘Stink Myself Dinosaur Love’, 2009 Photographs: 90 x 120 cm, paintings: 95 x 170 cm (installation view at Landings, Vestfossen, Norway) > more information and images | | Dan Rees ‘My Shoes Are Your Shoes’, 2009 Pencil and watercolour on paper 30 x 40 cm Unique REES-2009-0044 > more images | | Dan Rees ‘Short Stories’, 2009 8 C-prints, perspex box frame 46 x 37 cm Edition of 3 + 1 AP (2 complete sets, 1 set of individual works) REES-2009-0041 > more images | | Dan Rees ‘Something To Fill That Empty Feeling’, 2007 16 mm film projections, looping system Dimensions variable Edition of 3 + 1 AP REES-2009-0015 | | Dan Rees ‘Wall Rubbing of This Very Spot’, 2007 Coloured pencil, paper Dimensions variable Unique REES-2009-0012 | | Dan Rees ‘80 Girlfriends in 2007’, 2007 Kodak Carousel, 80 slides Dimensions variable Edition of 3 + 1 AP REES-2009-0014 | | Dan Rees ‘Variable Peace vs. Simon Starling’, 2006 Video projection; 22 mins Edition of 5 + 2 AP REES-2009-0008 | | Dan Rees ‘Variable Peace vs. Jonathan Monk’, 2006 Video projection; 9 mins Edition of 5 + 2 AP REES-2009-0007 | | Dan Rees ‘Black and White Things in Black and White’ (detail), 2006 Series of 6 photographs, black and white 19 x 13 cm Edition of 5 + 2 AP REES-2008-0001 > more images | | Dan Rees ‘What is Gillian Wearing?’, 2006 Colour photograph 46,5 x 65 cm (frame size) Edition of 5 + 2 AP REES-2008-0002 | | Dan Rees ‘One Afternoon and Evening in Llanelli; An ode to Cerith Wyn Evans’, 2006 20 photographs, framed 28 x 36 cm (each) Edition of 5 + 2 AP REES-2009-0016 | | Dan Rees ‘Holiday Money’, 2006 Coins, glue (on wall or paper) Dimensions variable REES-2009-0017 | | Dan Rees ‘The Postman’s Decision Is Final (Paris)’, 2006 Postcards, glue, shelf Dimensions variable, 1 year duration (installation view at Kadist Art Foundation, Paris) | | Dan Rees ‘How Much Wood Would One Man Need To Make Edward Woodward Out of Wood?’, 2006 Matches, glue Dimensions variable | | Dan Rees ‘Keep Your Art Soft and Sweet You Might Have To Eat It’, 2005 Fruit cake, icing Dimension variable Edition of 20 REES-2009-0005 | | Dan Rees ‘Ryman vs. Mangold’, 2005 Colour photograph, framed 4 x 4 cm Edition of 21 REES-2009-0006 | |