He has experimented with a broad practice that includes performance, interactive computer programs (the sculptural user interface), digital modeling and fabrication, animation, and video.
He transferred to the Kansas City Art Institute and worked with the installation artist Dale Eldred and the ceramics sculptor Jim Leedy.
He traveled to Germany in 1983-84 on a Deutscher Akademischer Austauchdienst (German Academic Exchange Service) award to study with Joseph Beuys and Gunther Uecker.
In 1989 he graduated from Yale University in Sculpture where he studied with David Von Schlegal, Irwin Hauer, Vito Acconci, Alice Aycock, Frank Gehry and others.
He met and worked with other artists at Yale including Matthew Barney, Katie Schimert, and Michael Grey and wrote an article about it [14] Rees teaches about sculpture and digital media at William Paterson University.