In December 2020, Simon Rees will have lived the majority of his life outside of New Zealand. Nevertheless, Rees spent many productive and rewarding years studying and working in NZ; including the time he was associated with the Auckland Art Fair as the director of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery who inaugurated the Len Lye Centre. Best known internationally for his work in Northern and Eastern Europe at the CAC, Vilnius, he has returned to working in those geo-political spaces as the artistic director of Cosmoscow, the international art fair in Russia.