de Pury & Luxembourg is proud to present POSTPUNKPAGANPOP, the first solo exhibition at the gallery by South African born artist Kendell Geers (b. 1968).

Five white neon works based on old master paintings of crucifixes welcome you in the first room and illuminate a 3.5 m tall corten steel house of cards. In the artist's unique graphic language, the cards read the seven virtues and the seven deadly sins.

Through a vestibule, the visitor enters (at his own risk) the gigantic razor mesh labyrinth "Akephale", the cruelty of which is reflected and multiplied by a room engulfing mirrored floor.

The work of Kendell Geers eludes the comfort of easy categorization by defying definition and consciously refusing to fit into any prescribed format. Whereas at first sight the work seems to be the result of an effortless creation, in reality the truth could not be more different for lurking beneath the surface are various layers of meanings, references, histories and quotations.

A modern day alchemist, Geers' work is seeped in the lore and experiment of ancient mythology and tradition. The gods and goddesses of antiquity are brought to life and recast through the prism of the contemporary. Like the archetypal tricksters Hermes and Lilith, Geers prefers to inhabit the spaces between worlds, the border town, the twilight zone, the brothel, the place where roads cross and ideologies clash and intersect, the space where art and life meet each other in a head on collision.

As does the trickster, Geers prefers to use profanity to describe the sacred, turning expectations upside down and inside out. The banal obscenity is transformed into a complex visual mantra for meditation and contemplation. Art history is quoted andreferenced, then dissected with irreverence, humour and irony until it is finally resurrected and brought back to life breathing the unmistakable spirit of Kendell Geers.

Ancient alchemical traditions and techniques are used to destabilize the flamboyance of the quotidian and disrupt the easy consumption of popular culture. A master at masking his own methods and erasing his tracks, Geers' work demands more than a cursory glance and greater effort than a passing one liner. The visual is nothing more than a door that demands to be knocked on in order to gain entry. The work of art is a portal that, like the sphinx' question to Oedipus, demands answering before the initiation may begin.

Kendell Geers has exhibited extensively worldwide. Recent solo exhibitions include "Irrespective" at the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Gent (2007), "Auto-Da-Fé" at B.P.S.22, "Charleroi" (2007) which toured to the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2007) and to the Musée d'Art Contemporain, Lyon (2008), "Hung, Drawn and Quartered", Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati and Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, USA (2004/2005); "Sexus", Cimaise et Portique, Albi, France (2004); "In the Flesh", Salon 94, New York (2004); "The Forest of Suicides", MACRO Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rome (2004); "TerroRealismus", Migros Museum, Zurich (2003); "Prototype, Red Sniper" (with Patrick Condeyns), Grand Salle, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2003); "Inferno", Center for Contemporary Art, Kitakyushu, Japan (2003) and "Sympathy for the Devil", Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2002).

Geers has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, most notably the 8th Biennale de Lyon (2005), Dionysiac, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2005), "Transcultures", The National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST), Athens (2005) and Dokumenta 11, Kassel (2002).