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Adriaan Rees

b. 1957, Amsterdam, the Netherlands · Lives and works between Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Jingdezhen, China

Adriaan Rees is a multidisciplinary sculptor whose practice is driven by ideas rather than by allegiance to a single material. Working across ceramics, bronze, glass, plaster, stone and textiles, as well as photography, video and performance, he approaches material as a means through which a concept can take physical form. Clay nevertheless remains central to his practice. Its tactile and bodily qualities allow him to work directly through pressure, gesture and touch, often treating a sculpture as though it were simultaneously a body and a landscape.

Rees studied sculpture at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam from 1986 to 1991. Rather than entering the ceramics department, he chose sculpture in order to develop a concept-led approach to making. Travel subsequently became inseparable from his practice. From around 2000 he increasingly worked across Asia, particularly Japan and China, eventually establishing a studio in Jingdezhen. Moving between Europe and Asia has shaped a visual language in which cultural symbols, craft traditions and materials are continually displaced, reinterpreted and given new meanings.

Contrasts recur throughout Rees's work: monumentality and intimacy, sensuality and physical force, humour and seriousness, tradition and innovation. The human figure is a persistent point of reference, but rarely appears as conventional representation. Bodies may be compressed, fragmented, exaggerated or transformed, while highly polished surfaces coexist with traces of modelling and physical intervention.

Alongside his studio practice, Rees has developed an extensive body of public commissions, performances and cross-cultural projects. He has taught and lectured internationally and has also worked as an art advisor, curator and project leader. Since 2008, his involvement in the Delft–Jingdezhen cultural exchange has connected artists, craftspeople, museums and institutions in the Netherlands and China, culminating in projects including The Blue Revolution. Across these different activities, collaboration and movement between places remain integral to his practice.

EDUCATION 1986–1991 Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Sculpture Department, Amsterdam, the Netherlands RESIDENCIES 2021 Artist in Residence, Sofitel Legend The Grand Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2009 INAX Laboratory, Tokoname, Japan 2004 Tokenomori, Institute for Ceramic Studies, Shigaraki, Japan SELECTED SOLO & TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS 2025 Reconstructing Memories, Coppejans Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium 2022 Across Eurasia, Gallery KTO Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan 2019–2020 The White Album / Witboek, Museum Beelden aan Zee, Scheveningen, the Netherlands 2017 Hidden Sceneries – Floating Memories, with Brigitte Spiegeler, ArtCN Gallery, Shanghai, China Rugwind, De Schuilhut en andere reisverhalen, with Herman Makkink, SBK Amsterdam KNSM, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2015 East West Wanderer, Livingstone Gallery, The Hague, the Netherlands 2005 Zangers en Helden, Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2026 Parallel Currents, ArtCN Gallery, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Summer Shapes II, Coppejans Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium Summer Shapes, Coppejans Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium 2025 5 Walls, 5 Works, Coppejans Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium Expo 5: Collections, Coppejans Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium 2024 The World of Things, Coppejans Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium 2023–2024 Keramiekprijs De Kei 2023, Museum Prinsenhof Delft, Delft, the Netherlands 2021 Earthscapes, ArtCN Gallery, Shanghai, China 2020 Truth/Reality, Coppejans Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium Packed & Boxed, Coppejans Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium 2016 Sexy Ceramics, Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands 2015 Greetings from Amsterdam – Successful Rietveld Academy Artists, Keramiekcentrum Tiendschuur Tegelen, Tegelen, the Netherlands 2008 Four Step Snake, Two Cities Gallery, Shanghai, China 2003 From the Neck Up, Garth Clark Gallery, Long Island City, New York, USA 2001 Hotheads, Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands SELECTED ART FAIRS 2025 PAN Amsterdam, with Coppejans Gallery, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Art The Hague, with Livingstone Gallery, The Hague, the Netherlands 2024 PAN Amsterdam, with Coppejans Gallery, Amsterdam, the Netherlands VOLTA Basel, with Livingstone Gallery, Basel, Switzerland VOLTA New York, with Livingstone Gallery, New York, USA Art Rotterdam, with Livingstone Gallery, Rotterdam, the Netherlands 2021 Shanghai Art Fair, with ArtCN Gallery, Shanghai, China 2019 Art The Hague, with Livingstone Gallery, The Hague, the Netherlands 2016 KunstRAI, with Livingstone Gallery, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2015 PAN Amsterdam, with Livingstone Gallery, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2014 PAN Amsterdam, with Livingstone Gallery, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2013 PAN Amsterdam, with Livingstone Gallery, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2011 Art Amsterdam, with Livingstone Gallery, Amsterdam, the Netherlands PAN Amsterdam, with Willy Schoots Gallery, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2008 Art Cologne, with Willy Schoots Gallery, Cologne, Germany 2007 MIArt, with Piercarlo Borgogno Gallery, Milan, Italy PUBLIC PROJECTS & COMMISSIONS 2025 New Yawner for Georgia, Tbilisi, Georgia 2023 New Dragon Wall, Sculpture Park, Chengdu, China 2022 High Tea, sculpture commission, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2021 Oh Johnny, public sculpture commission for Het Heertje, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2014 Circus Svea, with Kees Bierman, public sculpture for a roundabout, Schiedam, the Netherlands 2010 Street Lamps, public sculpture project, Delft, the Netherlands 2009 The Monkey, community art project, Leiderdorp, the Netherlands 2008 Community art project, Enkhuizen, the Netherlands 2007 Public sculpture for a roundabout, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2006 Fabriek, public sculpture, Hoogersmilde, the Netherlands Hanging sculptures, Maassluis, the Netherlands Boom van Hippocrates, public sculpture, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Community art project, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2004 Neptunis, sculpture and landscape project, Pijnacker-Nootdorp, the Netherlands Carillons, public sculpture project, Heerhugowaard, the Netherlands 2003 Sculpture commission, State University of New York at Fredonia, Fredonia, New York, USA 2002 Apenluiders, fountain sculpture, IJsselstein, the Netherlands Boog, public sculpture, Aa en Hunze, the Netherlands 2001 Sculpture commission, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Tokyo, Japan 2000 Town square design and development, Nieuwkoop, the Netherlands 1998 Sculpture Forest, landscape and sculpture project, Ursula Foundation, Nieuwkoop, the Netherlands 1995 Big Ear, public sculpture, Ra'anana, Israel Signum Omnicalus, public sculpture, Almere, the Netherlands 1994 De Steenhower, public sculpture, Gouda, the Netherlands 1993 Sculpture project, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 1992 Windmill, public art project, Zoetermeer, the Netherlands SELECTED CURATORIAL & CULTURAL PROJECTS 2014 The Blue Revolution, curator, Yuan Chonghuan Memorial Park Museum, Dongguan, China 2013 Delft–Jingdezhen: The Blue Revolution, 400 Year Exchange, initiator, project leader and curator, Museum Prinsenhof Delft, Delft, the Netherlands Delft–Jingdezhen: The Blue Revolution, 400 Year Exchange, initiator, project leader and curator, Jingdezhen Imperial Porcelain Museum, Jingdezhen, China SELECTED PERFORMANCES 2021 Drei Hasen, Coppejans Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium Bonjour, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2020 I Can't Read (aka This Is Not America), Coppejans Gallery / Falconplein, Antwerp, Belgium 2014 Zwaaien, Bernauer Strasse, Berlin, Germany SELECTED INSTITUTIONAL COLLECTIONS Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA SELECTED PUBLICATIONS 2022 Beuys 101, edited by Stijn Coppejans, Nico Dockx and Johan Pas, with a contribution by Adriaan Rees, ArchiVolt / Coppejans Gallery / curious050, Antwerp, Belgium 2019 Adriaan Rees: Witboek / The White Album, Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague, the Netherlands 2011 Adriaan Rees: Zoekende reiziger / Exploring Wanderer, LS Editions, The Hague, the Netherlands SELECTED PRESS 2021 Tineke van Gils, “De nieuwe gaper van Adriaan Rees,” De Kleine K, no. 83, the Netherlands 2005 Fredric Baas, “Zangers en Helden, nieuw werk van Adriaan Rees in de Prins van Leeuwarden,” Keramika, no. 1, the Netherlands