b. 1939 in Leopoldsburg, Belgium

d. 2018 in Genk, Belgium

Throughout his life, Jef Geys pursued a complex and eclectic body of work that radically breaks with the idea of autonomous art. His work offers a critical analysis of what constitutes art making by functioning as a transfer of knowledge in the form of, among other things, everyday objects or images that the artist found in his direct surrounding and distributed using locally available means. By playing with his identity, he often tried to have his work infiltrate unusual contexts. Questioning the value and status of art in society at large, as well as the role of institutions and that of the artist, Geys reversed and actively undermined hierarchies.