User:YL14663p/Wim Botha

Biography
Wim Botha was born in Pretoria in 1974 and currently lives in Cape Town, South Africa. He grew up in a suburban town on the eastern side of Pretoria. In 1996, Botha graduated from the University of Pretoria with a Bachelors in Visual Art. He has received the [[Helgaard Steyn Prize]] for sculpture in 2013, Standard Bank Young Artist Award 2005, and the first Tollman Award 2003. He has done multiple solo exhibitions around the world such as North Carolina Museum of Art in Realeigh, Fondation Blachere in Apt, France, etc.

Works
Botha has found inspiration for his work in government texts and religious icons, objects that show belief, faith, observation, transgression and forgiveness. He tries to expose the bad faith of the Encyclopedia. Among the mediums he uses are treated wood, books, acrylic enamel paint, oil paint, steel, Indian ink, bronze, paper, and marble.

Botha focuses on the study of contrasts, he looks at different elements and components that have opposite features and combines these to show different contrasts through his art. He takes a different perspective on western art when it comes to exploring different issues in history, power, etc.

The work he creates is deconstructed figurative monuments and figures juxtaposed with light, movement and installation.

The artworks embody a captivating duality, seamlessly intertwining the sacred with the profane, the heavy with the light, and the stable with the unsettled. Through a diverse palette of materials and subjects, the artist delves into profound themes of history, status, power, and religion. Drawing inspiration from a spectrum of art historical influences, these pieces resist fixed interpretation, inviting viewers to engage in a nuanced exploration of their meaning.

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".

Publications

 * Heliostat, Norval Foundation, 2018
 * Pietà, Stevenson, 2015
 * Rooms 2001-2014, Catalogue 77, 2014
 * Busts & Solipsis special edition, Stevenson, 2013
 * Solipsis I-V, Catalogue 69, 2013
 * Busts 2003-2012, Catalogue 66, 2012
 * Apocalagnosia, Catalogue 24,2007
 * Cold Fusion: Gods, Heroes and Martyrs, Catalogue 13, 2005
 * Standard Bank Young Artist 2005, Michael Stevenson, 2005
 * Personal Affects: Power and Poetics in Contemporary South African Art Museum of African Art/ Spier, 2004
 * Speculum, Catalogue 3, 2003

Exhibitions

 * September 17 - October 23, 2021: The River
 * May 22 - July,1, 2021: The River
 * March 19 - May 11, 2019: Still Life with Flowers
 * October 13 - December 3, 2016
 * August 18 - September 25, 2016: Pieta
 * July 3-13, 2014: The Epic Mundane
 * February 26 - April 5, 2014: Linear Perspectives
 * March 1 - July 20, 2013: Solipsis V
 * September 27 - November 2, 2012: A Thousand Things
 * January 20 - February 26, 2011: All This
 * August 6 - September 26, 2009: Joburg Altarpiece & Amazing Things from Other Places