Jan Theun van Rees
Constructed spaces in photography
Jan Theun van Rees is a Dutch artist working with photography. His practice centres on the relationship between space, light and perception. Combining elements of architectural photography with constructed environments, he creates images that occupy the space between documentation and invention.
More about the artist
Originally trained in architectural photography, Jan Theun van Rees spent many years photographing hidden and transitional spaces in museums and theatres, including the Rijksmuseum and Carré. His photographs focused on places that usually remain unseen, revealing a quiet beauty in technical rooms, empty stages and spaces in transformation.
Over time, his interest shifted from recording existing environments to creating them. Today, Van Rees builds his own temporary spaces and photographs them under carefully controlled conditions. Light plays a central role throughout the process. Rather than depicting recognisable locations, his photographs suggest spaces shaped by memory, atmosphere and visual experience.
His recent series, Painted Room, marks a further development of this approach. Working with painted textiles and simple constructions, he creates spatial compositions that exist solely for the camera. The resulting photographs balance abstraction and architecture, inviting viewers to reconsider how space can be experienced through an image.
Jan Theun van Rees' work has been shown internationally and is held in private and museum collections. His photographs appeal to collectors interested in contemporary photography, architectural imagery and works in which light and material become subjects in their own right.
In June 2026, GalleryViewer spoke with Jan Theun van Rees about his artistic practice and the development of his recent work. Read the interview here.
Explore available works by Jan Theun van Rees
By Jan Theun van Rees
90 × 90 cm, ed. 3, 2026
Pigment ink on bright white Photorag mounted on museum board, framed with spacer and UV70 museum glass
Also available in 45 × 45 cm, ed 5, 2026
This work is part of the series Painted Room
Zeldzaam Groen is part of Jan Theun van Rees' ongoing series Painted Room. Working with temporary constructions, shifting daylight and carefully positioned elements, the artist creates photographs in which colour, space and perspective remain in constant flux.
In this work, a soft green surface and subtle spatial cues create an image that moves between abstraction and architecture. The final composition is not predetermined but emerges through observation, adjustment and photography. What appears to be a simple image reveals itself as a carefully balanced construction, resulting in a photograph that invites a slower way of looking.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.
By Jan Theun van Rees
122 × 91,5 cm, ed. 3, 2026
Pigment ink on bright white Photorag mounted on museum board, framed with spacer and UV70 museum glass
This work is part of the series Painted Room
This photograph is part of the ongoing Painted Room series by Jan Theun van Rees, in which temporary architectural spaces are constructed using painted strips of textile. Through the careful interplay of light, colour, material, and perspective, the artist creates compositions that exist only for a brief moment before being transformed into photographic works.
Natural daylight plays a central role in the process. As the light changes throughout the day, shadows shift across the installation, creating visual relationships that are unique to a specific place and moment in time. The installation is continuously adjusted in response to these changing conditions, while the camera position evolves alongside the work.
Rather than documenting a fixed scene, the photograph captures a temporary spatial construction in constant transition. Light, space, material, and viewpoint influence one another throughout the process, resulting in an image whose final outcome remains uncertain until the photographs are reviewed afterwards.
Van Rees' work explores the relationship between photography, architecture, abstraction, and perception. By transforming simple materials into immersive spatial compositions, he challenges the viewer's understanding of depth, scale, and reality.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.
By Jan Theun van Rees
122 × 91,5 cm, ed. 3, 2026
Pigment ink on bright white Photorag mounted on museum board, framed with spacer and UV70 museum glass
This work is part of the series Painted Room
In Painted Room, Jan Theun van Rees constructs a temporary, immersive space using layered materials and painted surfaces, brought together through carefully controlled light. Soft textiles in shifting tones of blue, pink and grey create a spatial composition that feels both architectural and atmospheric. The interplay between shadow and colour blurs the line between physical structure and illusion, inviting the viewer to question depth, perspective and material reality.
This work is part of Van Rees’ ongoing exploration of spatial perception in contemporary photography, where constructed environments become the subject. Through subtle variations in light and surface, Painted Room offers a quiet, contemplative image that evolves with prolonged viewing.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.
By Jan Theun van Rees
122 × 91,5 cm, ed. 3, 2026
Pigment ink on bright white Photorag mounted on museum board, framed with spacer and UV70 museum glass
This work is part of the series Painted Room
In Painted Room, Jan Theun van Rees constructs a temporary, immersive space using layered materials and painted surfaces, brought together through carefully controlled light. Soft textiles in shifting tones of blue, pink and grey create a spatial composition that feels both architectural and atmospheric. The interplay between shadow and colour blurs the line between physical structure and illusion, inviting the viewer to question depth, perspective and material reality.
This work is part of Van Rees’ ongoing exploration of spatial perception in contemporary photography, where constructed environments become the subject. Through subtle variations in light and surface, Painted Room offers a quiet, contemplative image that evolves with prolonged viewing.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.
By Jan Theun van Rees
110 × 55 cm, ed. 3, 2025
Pigment ink on bright white Photorag mounted on museum board, framed with spacer and UV70 museum glass
This work is part of the series Painted Room
In Moonlit Corner, Jan Theun van Rees captures the quiet interplay between colour, light and constructed space. Created within his ongoing Painted Room series, the work depicts a temporary environment built and painted specifically for the photograph, a space that ceases to exist once the image is made.
Here, bands of deep blue and warm orange fabric interact with the cool grey tones of the floor, illuminated by a soft, angled light. The composition evokes both architecture and abstraction, balancing material presence with a sense of illusion.
Van Rees explores how light transforms painted surfaces into something ephemeral. Through this process, he turns photography into a form of painting, where each image becomes a moment of stillness, shaped entirely by colour and perception.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.
By Jan Theun van Rees
50 × 40 cm, ed. 3/5, 2025
Pigment ink on bright white Photorag mounted on museum board, framed with spacer and UV70 museum glass. Also available 115 × 91,5 cm, ed 3.
This work is part of the series Painted Room
With his art, Jan Theun van Rees focuses on the appearance of space as an image, the perception of that (visualised) space in relation to the space that surrounds us. Through his photographs he tries to visualise the specific qualities of those spaces. “Camera Lucida” is the catch-all term for all his artistic projects that try to visualise a connection between (interior) spaces and the outside world through incoming light. He intervenes in the space, manipulates the incoming light, to emphasise the spatial qualities he experiences. These interventions have become essential to his current practice. He constructs his own spaces, his own versions of a new, not yet existing reality. A certain spatial quality is visualised by constructing a space with the sole purpose to photograph the result.
In his new series Painted Room you can step into a new reality and become mesmerised by the rays of light, colourful surroundings and mystic shadows.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.
By Jan Theun van Rees
55 × 40 cm, ed. 5, 2025
Pigment ink on bright white Photorag mounted on museum board, framed with spacer and UV70 museum glass
This work is part of the series Painted Room
Wintergarden by Dutch artist Jan Theun van Rees continues his exploration of constructed spaces within the Painted Room series. Each work begins as a temporary environment, built, painted, and lit solely to be photographed, then dismantled afterwards.
In this piece, cool tones of blue, grey, and earthy brown merge across painted paper walls, evoking the quiet atmosphere of a winter interior. The folds and shadows suggest architectural depth while remaining entirely painterly.
Through this process, Van Rees turns photography into an act of creation rather than documentation. The result is a meditative image where light, surface, and perception converge, a space that exists only in the moment of being seen.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.
By Jan Theun van Rees
125 × 76 cm, ed. 3, 2025
Pigment ink on bright white Photorag mounted on museum board, framed with spacer and UV70 museum glass
This work is part of the series Painted Room
In Dented Space, Dutch artist Jan Theun van Rees continues his Painted Room series, in which photography, painting, and architecture merge. The space we see does not truly exist, it is a temporary construction, built and painted solely to be photographed, and dismantled immediately afterwards.
This work captures the momentary play of light across hand-painted fabric walls. The folds and textures suggest both depth and fragility, transforming a constructed scene into something that feels organic and timeless.
Van Rees’s practice explores the perception of space and how light defines form. By painting his environments and then photographing them, he turns the act of observation itself into an artistic process, where what remains is not documentation, but transformation.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.
By Jan Theun van Rees
130 × 65 cm, edition 2/3 + 1 AP , 2025
Pigment inkt, op Innova Photorag bright white, op 2 mm museumkarton ‘White Wash’Wenge Veneer with UV 70 Museumglass
(Also available in 90 × 45 cm, edition 2/3)
This work is part of the series Painted Room
In To Catch a Spark of Sunlight, Jan Theun van Rees captures the fleeting moment when light defines space. Built entirely by hand and photographed with precision, the work belongs to his Painted Room series, constructed interiors that exist only for the camera.
This particular composition plays with verticality and contrast, as sunlight appears to slice through the space, catching on surfaces and turning architecture into atmosphere. The title evokes a quiet urgency: the desire to hold onto something ephemeral, to freeze a passing beam of light.
Like much of Van Rees’ work, this image is both real and imagined, rooted in the physicality of construction, but shaped by the artist’s intuition and spatial memory.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.
By Jan Theun van Rees
110 × 80 cm, edition 2/3 + 1 AP , 2025
Pigment inkt, op Innova Photorag bright white, op 2 mm museumkarton ‘White Wash’Wenge Veneer with UV 70 Museumglass
(Also available in 40 × 55 cm, edition 2/5)
This work is part of the series Painted Room
In Scrambled Morninglight, Jan Theun van Rees constructs a space where colour, light, and architecture dissolve into pure perception. This large-format work—part of his Painted Room series, is not a depiction of an existing room, but a spatial invention, built solely to explore how light transforms constructed surfaces into image.
The composition is animated by layered tones of red, with flashes of purple, orange, and yellow that appear to scatter like fragments of morning light. The title references both the time of day and the fragmented way in which light and colour are perceived and remembered.
As with all works in the Painted Room series, this space never existed until Van Rees built and photographed it. It is a visual proposition: a way of thinking through architecture, photography, and the physical presence of colour in space.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.
By Jan Theun van Rees
50 × 40 cm, edition 1/3 + 1 AP , 2025
Pigment ink on Innova Photorag bright white, mounted on 4 mm museum board
Framed in ‘White Wash’ veneer with spacers and UV70 museum glass
(Also available in 25 x 20 cm, edition 10)
This work is part of the series Painted Room
With Red Room, Jan Theun van Rees continues his exploration of how space is perceived and constructed on the flat picture plane. The work is part of the Painted Room series, in which he intuitively builds and photographs entirely constructed environments.
Red Room exists solely to be photographed, a new, not-yet-existing reality created to express a particular spatial quality. The deep red appears to fill the room like a tangible presence, shaped by light and composition.
As in much of his recent work, Van Rees blurs the line between documentation and invention. Red Room invites the viewer to question what space is, how it comes into being, and the role perception plays in its formation.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.
By Jan Theun van Rees
55 × 40 cm, edition 2/5 + 1 AP , 2025
Pigment ink on acid free Innova Soft Textured Bright White - pale wenge wood veneer frame (Nielsen) with Museumglass (UV70)
This work is part of the series Painted Room
In View 1, Jan Theun van Rees constructs a compact, enigmatic space where colour and form suggest more than they reveal. Dominated by deep red tones and punctuated by a single yellow accent, the composition centres around a closed, door-like shape, evoking a sense of tension, as if access is denied or postponed.
Part of the Painted Room series, this image captures a space that exists solely for the camera. It is not a record of reality, but a visual proposition: a space that teases the eye and mind with the suggestion of passage, yet keeps its interior sealed.
View 1 plays with perception, inviting contemplation of what remains hidden just behind the surface.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.
By Jan Theun van Rees
55 × 40 cm, edition 2/5 + 1 AP , 2025
Pigment ink on acid free Innova Soft Textured Bright White - pale wenge wood veneer frame (Nielsen) with Museumglass (UV70)
This work is part of the series Painted Room
In View 2, Jan Theun van Rees continues his exploration of constructed spaces that exist solely to be photographed. Rich red tones dominate the composition, while subtle blue and yellow accents add a sense of spatial tension and visual rhythm.
At the centre, a door-like shape appears slightly ajar, unlike the closed form in View 1. This small shift opens up a new narrative: a hint of access, a glimpse of what might lie beyond.
As with all works in the Painted Room series, View 2 is a visual proposition, suggesting space, movement and meaning through colour, light, and geometry alone.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.
By Jan Theun van Rees
25 x 20 cm, ed. 5/10, 2024
Archival pigment ink on Innova ”Soft Textured BrightWhite Photorag” with nutwood frame and museumglass
This work is part of the series Painted Room
With his art, Jan Theun van Rees focuses on the appearance of space as an image, the perception of that (visualised) space in relation to the space that surrounds us. Through his photographs he tries to visualise the specific qualities of those spaces. “Camera Lucida” is the catch-all term for all his artistic projects that try to visualise a connection between (interior) spaces and the outside world through incoming light. He intervenes in the space, manipulates the incoming light, to emphasise the spatial qualities he experiences. These interventions have become essential to his current practice. He constructs his own spaces, his own versions of a new, not yet existing reality. A certain spatial quality is visualised by constructing a space with the sole purpose to photograph the result.
In his new series Painted Room you can step into a new reality and become mesmerised by the rays of light, colourful surroundings and mystic shadows.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.
By Jan Theun van Rees
75 x 60 cm, ed. 1/5, 2024
Archival pigment ink on Innova ”Soft Textured BrightWhite Photorag” with nutwood frame and museumglass
This work is part of the series Painted Room
With his art, Jan Theun van Rees focuses on the appearance of space as an image, the perception of that (visualised) space in relation to the space that surrounds us. Through his photographs he tries to visualise the specific qualities of those spaces. “Camera Lucida” is the catch-all term for all his artistic projects that try to visualise a connection between (interior) spaces and the outside world through incoming light. He intervenes in the space, manipulates the incoming light, to emphasise the spatial qualities he experiences. These interventions have become essential to his current practice. He constructs his own spaces, his own versions of a new, not yet existing reality. A certain spatial quality is visualised by constructing a space with the sole purpose to photograph the result.
In his new series Painted Room you can step into a new reality and become mesmerised by the rays of light, colourful surroundings and mystic shadows.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.
By Jan Theun van Rees
75 x 125 cm, ed. 1/3, 2024
Archival pigment ink on Innova ”Soft Textured BrightWhite Photorag” with nutwood frame and museumglass
This work is part of the series Painted Room
With his art, Jan Theun van Rees focuses on the appearance of space as an image, the perception of that (visualised) space in relation to the space that surrounds us. Through his photographs he tries to visualise the specific qualities of those spaces. “Camera Lucida” is the catch-all term for all his artistic projects that try to visualise a connection between (interior) spaces and the outside world through incoming light. He intervenes in the space, manipulates the incoming light, to emphasise the spatial qualities he experiences. These interventions have become essential to his current practice. He constructs his own spaces, his own versions of a new, not yet existing reality. A certain spatial quality is visualised by constructing a space with the sole purpose to photograph the result.
In his new series Painted Room you can step into a new reality and become mesmerised by the rays of light, colourful surroundings and mystic shadows.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.
By Jan Theun van Rees
70 x 50 cm, ed. 1/5, 2024
Archival pigment ink on Innova ”Soft Textured BrightWhite Photorag” with nutwood frame and museumglass
This work is part of the series Painted Room
With his art, Jan Theun van Rees focuses on the appearance of space as an image, the perception of that (visualised) space in relation to the space that surrounds us. Through his photographs he tries to visualise the specific qualities of those spaces. “Camera Lucida” is the catch-all term for all his artistic projects that try to visualise a connection between (interior) spaces and the outside world through incoming light. He intervenes in the space, manipulates the incoming light, to emphasise the spatial qualities he experiences. These interventions have become essential to his current practice. He constructs his own spaces, his own versions of a new, not yet existing reality. A certain spatial quality is visualised by constructing a space with the sole purpose to photograph the result.
In his new series Painted Room you can step into a new reality and become mesmerised by the rays of light, colourful surroundings and mystic shadows.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.
By Jan Theun van Rees
60 x 30 cm, ed. 2/5, 2024
Archival pigment ink on Innova ”Soft Textured BrightWhite Photorag” and nutwood frame with museumglass
With his art, Jan Theun van Rees focuses on the appearance of space as an image, the perception of that (visualised) space in relation to the space that surrounds us. Through his photographs he tries to visualise the specific qualities of those spaces. “Camera Lucida” is the catch-all term for all his artistic projects that try to visualise a connection between (interior) spaces and the outside world through incoming light. He intervenes in the space, manipulates the incoming light, to emphasise the spatial qualities he experiences. These interventions have become essential to his current practice. He constructs his own spaces, his own versions of a new, not yet existing reality. A certain spatial quality is visualised by constructing a space with the sole purpose to photograph the result.
In his new series Painted Room you can step into a new reality and become mesmerised by the rays of light, colourful surroundings and mystic shadows.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.
By Jan Theun van Rees
25 x 20 cm, ed. 1/10, 2024
Archival pigment ink on Innova ”Soft Textured BrightWhite Photorag” with nutwood frame and museumglass
This work is part of the series Painted Room
With his art, Jan Theun van Rees focuses on the appearance of space as an image, the perception of that (visualised) space in relation to the space that surrounds us. Through his photographs he tries to visualise the specific qualities of those spaces. “Camera Lucida” is the catch-all term for all his artistic projects that try to visualise a connection between (interior) spaces and the outside world through incoming light. He intervenes in the space, manipulates the incoming light, to emphasise the spatial qualities he experiences. These interventions have become essential to his current practice. He constructs his own spaces, his own versions of a new, not yet existing reality. A certain spatial quality is visualised by constructing a space with the sole purpose to photograph the result.
In his new series Painted Room you can step into a new reality and become mesmerised by the rays of light, colourful surroundings and mystic shadows.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.
By Jan Theun van Rees
25 x 20 cm, ed. 3/10, 2024
Archival pigment ink on Innova ”Soft Textured BrightWhite Photorag” with nutwood frame and museumglass
This work is part of the series Painted Room
With his art, Jan Theun van Rees focuses on the appearance of space as an image, the perception of that (visualised) space in relation to the space that surrounds us. Through his photographs he tries to visualise the specific qualities of those spaces. “Camera Lucida” is the catch-all term for all his artistic projects that try to visualise a connection between (interior) spaces and the outside world through incoming light. He intervenes in the space, manipulates the incoming light, to emphasise the spatial qualities he experiences. These interventions have become essential to his current practice. He constructs his own spaces, his own versions of a new, not yet existing reality. A certain spatial quality is visualised by constructing a space with the sole purpose to photograph the result.
In his new series Painted Room you can step into a new reality and become mesmerised by the rays of light, colourful surroundings and mystic shadows.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.
By Jan Theun van Rees
25 x 20 cm, ed. 1/10, 2024
Archival pigment ink on Innova ”Soft Textured BrightWhite Photorag” with nutwood frame and museumglass
This work is part of the series Painted Room
With his art, Jan Theun van Rees focuses on the appearance of space as an image, the perception of that (visualised) space in relation to the space that surrounds us. Through his photographs he tries to visualise the specific qualities of those spaces. “Camera Lucida” is the catch-all term for all his artistic projects that try to visualise a connection between (interior) spaces and the outside world through incoming light. He intervenes in the space, manipulates the incoming light, to emphasise the spatial qualities he experiences. These interventions have become essential to his current practice. He constructs his own spaces, his own versions of a new, not yet existing reality. A certain spatial quality is visualised by constructing a space with the sole purpose to photograph the result.
In his new series Painted Room you can step into a new reality and become mesmerised by the rays of light, colourful surroundings and mystic shadows.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.
By Jan Theun van Rees
122 × 91,5 cm, ed. 3, 2026
Pigment ink on acid free Innova Soft Textured Bright White - frame, raw nutwood with spacers and Museumglass (UV70)
Also available in 60 × 45 cm, ed 5, 2026
This work is part of the series Painted Room
Licht Omloop is part of Jan Theun van Rees' ongoing series Painted Room. Through a process of constructing, observing and continuously repositioning elements in relation to changing daylight, the artist creates photographs in which colour and space remain in constant flux.
In Licht Omloop, warm orange tones are balanced by areas of aqua blue and subtle touche of purple. The image hovers between abstraction and architecture, suggesting depth and movement without revealing the temporary set from which it emerged. Rather than depicting an existing space, the work presents a carefully constructed situation in which light, perspective and colour come together in a single moment.
Shipping within the Netherlands and Belgium is on us.