Student Artwork Guide
Copyright This work is treated as still under copyright. Dan Rees was born in 1982 and has no recorded death date; copyright lasts 70 years after the artist’s death. The image is shown here for classroom reference; rights remain with the rights holder.
In context
Vacuum Painting — Dan Rees
The original measures 122 × 27 cm (height × width), drawn here beside an adult of average height.
Row above: the years. Row below: how old the artist was at the start and at the end of each span, counting 0 from birth.
every dated painting, decade by decade
This record has no exact year on file — using the artist's lifetime and the work's style, what decade would you guess?
Pick one work above: name two things it shares with this one, and one thing that's different.
More works to set beside this one: artsdot.com/en/art/similar/dan-rees-vacuum-painting-AQZQLS-en/
Measured from the image
Main colour
White #e5e4e4
Catalogued palette
These colours inside the artist’s whole palette Find other paintings by colour
The ten leading countries
Find the three darkest countries on the map. Is the museum that keeps this painting in any of them? Write down one reason people far away might look at it.
Together these works take 100.0% of all the attention this artist's paintings received over the last twelve months. The catalogue holds 5 works by this artist, of which 1 were looked at at least once. This painting has not been looked at yet in that time — it closes the list without a rank. The same counts, month by month
Bars measure attention, not quality. Pick the work at the top and this one: name one thing that might make a painting famous beyond how well it is painted.
Artist and museum
Born in the coastal landscape of Swansea, Wales, in 1982, Dan Rees has cultivated a practice that exists at the intersection of memory, material, and social history. His artistic journey is one of profound movement and academic rigor, shaped by a nomadic spirit that saw him relocate to Germany in 2005. This transition from his Welsh roots to the prestigious halls of the Städelschule in Frankfurt, following his formative studies at the Camberwell College of Art in London, allowed Rees to synthesize a unique visual language. His work is not merely an exploration of form, but a deep dive into the textures of identity, utilizing painting, photography, sculpture, and performance to bridge the gap between the conceptual and the visceral.
The heart of Rees’s practice lies in his ability to elevate the mundane into the monumental. He is perhaps most celebrated for his evocative series involving Artex painting, a technique that carries heavy cultural connotations within the British psyche. By utilizing Artex—a textured plaster coating synonymous with the interior aesthetics of 1970s working-class homes—Rees engages in a subtle subversion of aesthetic hierarchies. He takes a material often dismissed as gaudy or domestic and transforms it into a medium for high abstraction, forcing the viewer to confront the beauty found within the "unrefined." This process-driven approach is further expanded through his experimentation with vacuum painting, where meticulous layering creates surfaces that capture the ephemeral nuances of light and shadow.
Rees’s evolution as an artist is marked by a restless curiosity regarding the physical properties of his media. Beyond the textured landscapes of Artex, his recent explorations have delved into the unpredictable beauty of marbling. In these works, he employs the fluid, swirling motions of marbling on linen to reference the delicate traditions of papercraft and bookmaking. This technique allows him to weave together themes of craftsmanship and chance, creating canvases that feel both ancient and contemporary. His work often functions as a dialogue between the materiality of the surface and the cultural history it represents, making each piece a layered narrative of social class, domesticity, and artistic intent.
The significance of his contribution to contemporary art is reflected in his ability to command attention on the international stage. His career has been punctuated by notable recognitions, such as being named among Complex magazine’s "25 artists to watch" in 2013. His exhibition history spans a global landscape, from solo shows in London and Berlin to prestigious group appearances in Paris, Rome, and Naples. These exhibitions have allowed him to showcase a body of work that is as much about the process as it is about the final image, inviting audiences to participate in the tactile discovery of his textured worlds.
To look upon a work by Dan Rees is to engage with a history of touch. His achievements are not merely found in gallery accolades but in the way he reclaims forgotten textures and breathes new life into them. Through his diverse repertoire, Rees has established himself as an artist who refuses to separate the intellectual from the sensory. His legacy continues to grow through:
The conceptual reclamation of domestic materials like Artex to challenge class-based aesthetic perceptions.
A sophisticated mastery of multi-disciplinary techniques including sculpture, photography, and marbling.
An international presence that connects the academic traditions of London and Frankfurt with a global contemporary art discourse.
In every stroke and every textured layer, Rees remains a dedicated explorer of the surfaces that define our shared human experience.
artsdot.com/en/art/download/dan-rees-vacuum-painting-AQZQLS-en/
Look closely
Vacuum Painting — Dan Rees
Answer in your own words. There are no wrong answers here — only answers you can explain.
Write a short paragraph about this artwork. Use the facts from the earlier parts of this guide, and your answers above.
In terms of perceived brightness, "Vacuum Painting" by Dan Rees is brilliant.
To get a print of "Vacuum Painting" by Dan Rees, simply order it on its Fine Art Print page: a fine art print on cotton canvas or archival canvas paper.
The Preview page of "Vacuum Painting" lets you preview the artwork before ordering.