Wim Botha (born 1974) is a South African

contemporary artist Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art i ...

Biography

Botha was born in

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

in 1974 and currently lives in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. He grew up in a suburban town on the eastern side of

. In 1996, Botha graduated from the

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria (, ) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and ''de facto'' capital of South Africa. The university was established in 1908 as the Pretoria campus of the Johan ...

with a Bachelors in

Visual Art The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and texti ...

. He has received the Helgaard Steyn Prize for sculpture in 2013, Standard Bank Young Artist Award 2005, and the Tollman Award 2003.

Works

Botha has found inspiration for his work in government texts and religious icons, objects that show belief, faith, observation, transgression and forgiveness. Among the mediums he uses are treated wood, books, acrylic

enamel paint Enamel paint is paint that air-dries to a hard, usually glossy, finish, used for coating surfaces that are outdoors or otherwise subject to hard wear or variations in temperature; it should not be confused with decorated objects in "painted enam ...

oil paint Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. Oil paint also has practical advantages over other paints, mainly because it is waterproof. The earliest surviving ...

, steel,

Indian ink India ink (British English: Indian ink; also Chinese ink) is a simple black or coloured ink once widely used for writing and printing and now more commonly used for drawing and outlining, especially when inking comic books and comic strips. In ...

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

, paper, and marble. The artist explains; “My works are a process of distillations...They attempt to reduce all-encompassing ideas and universal factors down to their core idea.” Exploring along the way “intercepting variables” and “patterns”

Exhibitions

2014 Linear Perspectives - Stevenson, Cape Town 2013 PREDICATES - Galerie Jette Rudolph, Berlin 2012 Wim Botha - Stevenson, Johannesburg 2011 All Around - Galerie Jette Rudolph, Berlin Wim Botha - Stevenson, Cape Town 2009 Wim Botha: Joburg Altarpiece & Amazing Things from Other Places - Stevenson, Cape Town 2008 Wim Botha - Galerie Jette Rudolph, Berlin Wim Botha - Stevenson, Johannesburg 2007 Wim Botha: Apocalagnosia - Stevenson, Cape Town 2006 Wim Botha: Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art 2005 - Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg 2005 * A Premonition of War - Durban Art Gallery, Durban * A Premonition of War. Standard Bank Young - The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Port Elizabeth * Cold Fusion. Gods, Heroes and Martyrs - Stevenson, Cape Town * Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art 2005 - South African National Art Gallery, Cape Town * 2003 Speculum - Stevenson, Cape Town Group shows 2014 * Artists Engaged? Maybe - Gulbenkian. Próximo Futuro, Lisbon * Alptraum - Maribor Art Gallery, Maribor * Alptraum - Maribor Art Gallery, Maribor * The Divine Comedy. Heaven, hell, purgatory from the perspective of African contemporary artists - - Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK), Frankfurt/Main 2013 A Sculptural Premise - Stevenson, Cape Town Pophits & Alptraum - Artspace RheinMain, Offenbach The Loom of the Land - Stevenson, Johannesburg 2012 * Alptraum - The Nightmare Never Ends - X project space, Berlin * Alptraum - Green Papaya Art Project - - Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Manila * Alptraum - Green Papaya Art Projects, Quezon City * Alptraum - Goethe-Institut Johannesburg, Johannesburg 2011 * Conrad Botes With Berni Searle, Wim Botha, Nandipha Mntambo, Penny Siopis, Serge Alain Nitegeka + Sabelo Mlangeni - Turner Gallery, Perth, WA * mémoires du futur - la collection Olbricht - La Maison Rouge, Paris * Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art 2011 - Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Gothenburg * iALPTRAUM! - Blank Projects, Cape Town * New Acquisitions - The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Port Elizabeth * Alptraum! - Anat Egbi, Los Angeles, CA * ¡ALPTRAUM! - Washington D.C., London, Berlin, Los Angeles, Kapstadt - Projektraum Deutscher Künstlerbund, Berlin 2010 * Index 40: Leading Works from the Sanlam Art Collection - Smac Art Gallery, Stellenbosch * PEEKABOO - Current South Africa - Helsinki Art Museum, Helsinki * Triennale Kleinplastik - Larger Than Life - Stranger Than Fiction - Triennale Kleinplastik Fellbach, Fellbach 2009 Self/Not-self - Stevenson, Johannesburg 2008 Disguise: The art of attracting and deflecting attention - Stevenson, Cape Town 2007 * Politische Ikonografie - Galerie Jette Rudolph, Berlin * Summer 2007/8 - Stevenson, Cape Town * Africa Remix - Contemporary art of a continent - Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), Johannesburg * TRANS CAPE - contemporary African art on the move - Trans Cape Africa, Cape Town * Afterlife - Stevenson, Cape Town 2006 * South African Art Now - Stevenson, Cape Town * Africa Remix - Moderna Museet, Stockholm * What lies beneath - New Art from South Africa - Galerie Mikael Andersen, Copenhagen * Africa Remix - Contemporary Art of a Continent - Mori Art Museum, Tokyo * 7ème Biennale de l´Art Africain contemporain - Dak'Art Biennale de l’art africain contemporain, Dakar * Personal Affects - Power and Poetics in Contemporary South African Art - Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, HI * Olvida quien soy - Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno (CAAM), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 2005 * South African art 1848 - now - Stevenson, Cape Town * African Remix - l'art contemporain d'un continent - Centre Pompidou - Musée National d´Art Moderne, Paris * Africa Remix – Contemporary Art of a Continent - Hayward Gallery, London 2004 * Personal Affects - Power and Poetics in Contemporary - Museum for African Art, New York City, NY * Afrika Remix - Zeitgenössische Kunst eines Kontinents - Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf 2003 * The Ampersand Foundation - Warren Siebrits Gallery, Johannesburg * Contact Zones - Colonial & Contemporary - Stevenson, Cape Town

Exhibition catalogues

*Wim Botha: Rooms 2001-2014 (2014) *Wim Botha: Solipsis I-V (2013) *Wim Botha: Busts 2003-2012 (2012) *Wim Botha: Joburg Altarpiece & Amazing Things from Other Places (PDF only, 2009) *Wim Botha: Apocalagnosia (2007) *Wim Botha: Standard Bank Young Artist (2005) *Wim Botha: Cold Fusion: Gods, heroes and martyrs (2005) *Wim Botha: Speculum (2003)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Botha, Wim South African sculptors 21st-century sculptors Artists from Pretoria University of Pretoria alumni 1974 births Living people Artists from Cape Town