JEF GEYS
Retrospectieve-Introspectie
27 October 2007 - 25 October 2008
Tuesday to Saturday from 2 to 7 pm and by appointment

Room 3
Opening 6 March 2008 6 - 9 pm





Erna Hecey Gallery is pleased to present the third instalment of a special yearlong project by renowned Belgian artist Jef Geys.

During a one-year period, Jef Geys will create a room in the basement of the gallery in which he will show a selection of old and new works. A “Retrospective-Introspection,” in the words of the artist, Geys’ “chambre” is conceived as a shifting solo exhibition, an opportunity to reflect on past productions while proposing and experimenting with new ideas. The room is approximately 3 x 4 meters with a door-sized opening, at the back of the space. Around every two months Geys will present a different arrangement of works.

Geys’s third “chamber” features his !Women’s Questions?

!Women’s Questions? began as a series of socio-political questions hanging on the wall in Geys’s classroom where in 1964 he was teaching art in Balen. The questions generated conversation and debate among the students. In 1965 Geys received an invitation from Balen’s Socialist Women’s Group to include one painting from his seed packet series (every year Geys makes a painting depicting the packet of seeds which he had planted in his garden) in an exhibition. He agreed to contribute a painting on condition that they include !Women’s Questions?, which they did. Geys thus inserted a list of 157 questions with the 158th question left blank, written with black ink on brown paper. !Women’s Questions? has subsequently been shown in several other contexts in Europe and the US. He has had the questions translated from Flemish into English, German, Spanish, Dutch, Hebrew, French, Japanese, Chinese, Hindi, and Arabic.

Jef Geys is one of Belgium’s most esteemed artists. His art cannot be separated from his biography; he began keeping an index of his own work when he was thirteen years old. Since he appeared on the art scene at the beginning of the 1960s, Geys has conceived his entire oeuvre as an evolving project that combines a conceptual attitude, educational activity and formal experimentation. His work, in diverse media, deals with themes related to social, political and economic fields, and is especially marked by its anti-elitism and critical intelligence. He has exhibited in many important institutions around the world, including the IAC Villeurbanne (2007); Orchard Gallery, New York (2007), Pori Art Museum, Pori, Finland (2005); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2004); Documenta 11, Kassel (2002); Le Collège-Frac Champagne-Ardenne (1995); Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (1992); and São Paulo Biennial (1991). He recently participated in the “Deep Comedy” show at Marfa, Texas (2007), curated by Dan Graham with Sylvia Chivaratanond.