Reece King was born in Tāmaki Makaurau, New Zealand, in 1989. He grew up on the west coast at Te Henga and completed a Masters in Painting at Unitec Te Whare Wānanga o Wairaka in 2021. Reece is the recipient of the 2025 Frances Hodgkins Fellowship at the University of Otago Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka.
His work was included in the 2024 Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki’s, Aotearoa Contemporary exhibition. In 2023 he was the inaugural recipient of the Church Rd Art Initiative, an award made by the winery in partnership with MTG Hawke’s Bay Tai Ahuriri, Art News Aotearoa magazine, and Semi-Permanent. In 2021 he was awarded the Eden Arts Karekare House Residency. In 2020 he was the supreme winner of the New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Award, administered by the Waikato Society of Arts.
In 2020 King was one of the founders of Sanc, a ‘painter-run’ space on Upper Queen St that staged a number of first exhibitions before being repurposed as a studio in 2023. His work is in public and private collections worldwide, including those of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and MTG Hawke’s Bay Tai Ahuriri.
King’s recent exhibitions include: Can I Sit Next to You, Gallery 9, Sydney, 2024; Strata, Anna Miles Gallery, Auckland, 2024; Low Long Signal, Anna Miles Gallery, Auckland, 2023; Reecent Work, Anna Miles Gallery, Auckland, 2022; Circle Turtle (with Tyrone Te Waa), Papakura Art Gallery, 2022; Solosolo, Anna Miles Gallery, Auckland, 2021; Head Brain, Sanc, 2020; The Divine Angle, CoCA Toi Moroki, Otautahi Christchurch, 2019; Impropulsion, Green St Projects, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, 2019; and Silver, Gallery 9, Sydney, 2019. King’s work is included in public and private collections including those of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and MTG Hawke’s Bay Tai Ahuriri.