Kendell Geers

Kendell Geers is an artist, performance artist, musician and film-maker. Geers was born in Johannesburg in 1968. In Venice in 1993, Geers rose to international notoriety when he urinated in Marcel Duchamp's Fountain. He has exhibited globally since 1993 and participated in numerous exhibitions including Documenta, the Carnegie International, Havana Biennial, Istanbul Biennial, Kwang Ju Biennial, Taipei Biennial, Lyon Biennial, Glasstress at the Venice Biennale, as well as presented solo exhibitions in the CCA Cincinnati, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst Gent, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Aspen Art Museum and the CAC in Lyon.^{[citation needed]}

Kendell Geers is represented in Paris by Yvon Lambert Gallery and in London by Stephen Friedman Gallery.

Background

In 1988, Kendell Geers was one of 143 young men who publicly refused to serve in the South African Defence Force and faced either a life in exile or 6 years imprisonment in a civilian jail. In 1989 he left South Africa and lived for a brief period in exile in the United Kingdom and New York where he worked as an assistant to artist Richard Prince.

It was only after Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners' release from prison, that Geers could return from exile to Johannesburg without fear of being imprisoned. In 1990, he returned to Johannesburg where he worked as an artist, and art critic, curator and performance artist. The first work of art he created back on South African soil was "Bloody Hell", a ritual washing of his white Afrikaaner Boer body with his own fresh blood.^{[citation needed]}

From 1999 until 2004, Geers worked as the curator and art consult for Gencor which was later bought out by BHP Billiton. The collection focused on artists and works of art that were central to the Anti-Apartheid Movement spirit. In 1997 Geers edited and published Contemporary South African Art, with essays by Okwui Enwezor, Olu Oguibe, and others.

Side projects

Together with musician Patrick Codenys (Front 242) and Ilse Ghekiere, Kendell Geers formed the Belgium Audio-Visual group "thefucKINGFUCKS" in 2007. The project grew out of the now defunct "Red Sniper" collaboration between Geers and Codenys.

Kendell Geers designed the artwork for 1633, an EP by the Japanese noise musician, Merzbow. It was released in an edition of 100 copies in 12 inch vinyl, with a felt slipmat designed by Geers, made in four different designs with twenty-five copies of each.^{[citation needed]}

Terminal 5, 2004

In 2004, the disused Saarinen-designed TWA Flight Center (now Jetblue Terminal 5) at JFK Airport briefly hosted "Terminal 5", an exhibition of art inspired by travel and the terminal's architecture, and including work by Geers. It closed abruptly after the building itself was vandalized during the opening party.

Bibliography

• Argot. Chalkham Hill Press, 1993.
• Contemporary South African Art. Jonathan Ball Publishers, 1997. ISBN 978-1868420391.
• My Tongue in Your Cheek. Dijon: les Presses du réel; Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2002. ISBN 2-7118-4374-2.
• Kendell Geers. Mondadori Electa, 2004. ISBN 8837030509.
• Fingered. Imschoot Uitgevers, 2006. ISBN 90 7736 233 9.
• "Irrespektiv." BOM / Actar, 2007. ISBN 978-8493487959.

External links

• Kendell Geers from Stephen Friedman Gallery
• Official Kendell Geers website
• Artthrob featured artist
• Jan Winkelmann Waiting for the Barbarians Skulptur-Biennale Münsterland
• Artist's profile at Galleria Continua, including examples of work
• Artist's profile at Yvon Lambert Gallery, including examples of work
• Vernissage.tv feature of Geers' exhibition Kannibale
• "F***in Summer" video documentation of IRRESPEKTIV, S.M.A.K. Belgium
• "Interview with Becky Hunter" Whitehot Magazine Interview, January 2008
• "Jeering at a one-eyed man: Kendell Geers at the Stephen Friedman Gallery" by Johan Thom in Art South Africa, V5.4, May 2007
• A portrait, spike art quarterly
• Kendell Geers at Glasstress - Venice Biennale