I was an artist in residence with Innovazione Garfagnana and the Digital Stone Project carving stone on the other side of the mountains from Pietra Santa and Carrara in Gramalzzo.
michael rees
Putto 2x2x2x2, 2003, 6' tall, private collection.
of men and monsters
Nancy Hightower writes here on the Putto Series:
The grotesque is often used as a synonym for all that is dark, obscene, bizarre, and even gruesome. That is a rather lazy definition for an aesthetic that robs us momentarily of our ability to rationalize and categorize things. The truly grotesque moves us more into a sense of mystery — into the world of things that are now given life and essence. We encounter such movement in the 3-D work of visual artist Michael Rees.
Thanks Nancy!
Participating in The C of O
Detail of Parrott Parrott. The work on the left grows from a collaborative exchange with Chris Manzione.
Press Release for the Cult of Orginality Show
I'm in a show that opens soon. Its an art exhibition about originality issues "The C of O Show" (cult of originality) opens at Ramapo College on March 27 in the Kresge Gallery on campus. There will be an opening reception on March 27 from 5 to 7 p.m. Artist and curators' talks begin at 6 p.m. The exhibition continues through May 1.
"The C of O Show" has been co-curated by Director of the Art Galleries Sydney O. Jenkins and Hannah Craft Art Galleries Documentation Assistant. Included artists: Barbara Bloom, the artists' collaborative HANIMAL, Joshua Knoblick, Liza Lou, Israel Lund, Yoko Ono, Michael Rees, Stephanie Syjuco, Kehinde Wiley, and Hennessy Youngman.
Parrot Parrot
2013Rees was invited by the curators to work with pieces from the Ramapo’s Bukstein Collection in combination with his own sculptures, some of which evolved from back and forth digital collaborations with Chris Manzione. The fabricated objects are made through various means: drawn, modeled, extruded, voxilized, clayed: each working through different states of mediation. The result is developed in situ, in conversation with the curators and in relationship with other artists in a semiotic fabric. The objects are at play as they are considered in relationship to one other. The final work reflects an action where objects are repeated, parroted, and changed as they are considered. This work furthers Rees's interest in a process which employs an iterative and generative technique, where objects are created through a network of relationships and can flip sculptural roles by adapting multiple positions and inferences.
From the piece top to bottom left to right
left to right top to bottom
1. H Trope 23a, plastiscene clay, 4"x6"x3", 2013 (with Chris Manzione htropecmmrcmmrmrmrmrcmmrmr)
2. S Master 6, painted pla, 6"x4"x4", 2013
3. S master 21 with frame animation, painted pla, 0:38' video,4"x9"x3"
4. H Trope 23, painted pla 8"x5"x3", 2013 (with Chris Manzione htropecmmrcmmrmrmrmrcmmrmr)
5. Chinese Figure with Monkeys (From the Buckstein Collection)
6. Parrott (From the Buckstein Collection)
7. S Master 8, painted polyurethane, 6"x3"x2", 2012
8. Parrott (From the Buckstein Collection)
9. Splinter, painted pla, 5.5"x7"x4", 2013
10. Irreconciled Fabrication, 7"x14"x4", 2013
11. double tree, painted polyurethane, 4"x5"x9", 2011
interview with Bradley Rubenstein at Art Slant
Art Slant
Game Theory: Michael Rees + Bradley Rubenstein
Bradley asks a series of questions and i try my best to avoid them. They interview was conducted over several months. I drove Bradley a little crazy with all the edits I continued to make.
interview with Vanessa Saraceno
NY Arts Magazine
In Conversation:
Vanessa Saraceno Interviews Michael Rees and Robert Gero
Over the past year, Michael Rees and Robert Gero have created a series of artwork based on the strategical play of a particular gallery space and the hundreds of interactions it can produce. Tactical Play Exchange, their first collaborative project, was on view in New York at Pablo’s Birthday Gallery through May 5th. The show moved to Favorite Goods Gallery in Los Angeles, where it was reconfigured according to the new space on May 12th.
This constant-action project begins with the architectural elements constituting the exhibition space—modeled with 3D software in different times and places by the two artists. This to-and-fro movement between the two artists becomes a “networked ground of play” in which the physical quality of sculpture is transformed into an infinitely malleable architecture of relations.
New Site New Look
This is the updated portfolio site for my work. How do you like it? click here
My Posterous site gets deleted when they shutter their service on April 30th. The site is still available until then click here
In the meantime, this new blog service has much to recommend. I'm committed to the no muss no fuss ethos of the blog site. I can post information, pictures, movies, and they'll propagate to other places. This is a portfolio site but I maintain a blog site at tumblr and the facebook, twitter thing too.
Mailing List? right here
2012 Here's an interview with Bradley Rubenstein
Game Theory: Michael Rees + Bradley Rubenstein
Bradley asks a series of questions and I try my hardest to avoid them. The interview was conducted over several months. I drove Bradley a little crazy with all the edits I continued to make. Here's the intro blurb!!
New York, Dec. 2012: Michael Rees is a New York artist. His first New York show at 303 opened in the early 90's. Then, as now, his work displays humor with a reflective conflation of the psychosomatic, the automatic source of language and its programmatic development. He has worked widely developing animation, sculpture, installation and interactive media. As of late his interest in the object grows through collaboration, humor and language examined through a collision of medias. Upcoming projects include a work for Out of Hand: Digital Fabrication in Art and Design at the Museum of Art and Design in New York. Bradley Rubenstein and Michael Rees were represented by Universal Concepts in New York and have collaborated on several projects and exhibitions together, most recently in an upcoming print edition through Rutgers University Print Department. This interview was conducted via email from March 2012 through December 2012.