West Windsor Arts Center

Michael Rees, Synthetic Cell (flat) 001, string Thing, Rooster

Exhibition Highlight
[sin ‘Thedik] Landscape
September 12 – November 2, 2018
Michael Rees

Michael Rees was one of the first sculptors in the world to blend the use of computer-aided design, 3d printing and automated manufacture into a conceptual art practice, pioneering the use of new media in sculpture since the early 1990’s. Rees’ work sits at the intersection of the themes of figuration, language, biology, technology and the social to weave a sculptural mélange. It often addresses figuration through a variety of media, including aspects of an embodied dynamic investigating incorporation, mind and imagination.

Rees’ work has been shown at the Whitney Museum in the 1995 Biennial and again in 2001 in the exhibition BitStreams. He has had international exhibitions at the MARTa Museum in Germany, and shown in New York galleries. The work is included in public collections at the Whitney Museum of American Art and also at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas city with a large permanent public installation of sculpture and animation Putto 2x2x4. Rees utilizes performance, animation, video, installation, sculptural objects, computer software programs, and interactivity.

Rees holds a Masters of Fine Art from Yale University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute, and became a tenured associate professor of art after joining the faculty of William Paterson University in 2008. In 2009 he became the director of the newly reminted Center for New Art.