Conrad Botes

Instagram

b. 1969 - Western Cape, RSA

Conrad Botes has an MA in Fine Arts from the University of Stellenbosch (1997) and a degree in Second Phase Illustration from the Koninklijke Akademie voor Beeldende Kunsten, Den Haag, Netherlands (1994). He currently lives and works in Cape Town.

Botes’ biting satire, frequently directed at South African society, politics and religion, is channelled into both his painting, printmaking and sculptural art practice, and his satirical comics, published – alongside his frequent collaborator Anton Kannemyer – in the Bitterkomix series. Botes is fascinated by the subversive quality an image can possess, where the formal aspects and the physical beauty of a work can draw the viewer in and seduce, and simultaneously being confronted by disturbing content and subject matter.

Botes’ work often oscillates between different formal practices; he is equally at ease sculpting or painting. He can be equally drawn into the complicated narrative of the comic sequential narrative or the austereness of portraiture. Yet when it comes to the content of his work, he is fundamentally drawn towards allegory and its ability to seduce the viewer into a narrative. This is why he often chooses biblical themes as vehicles for political allegories, they have a familiarity that one can relate to, yet they hold the possibility to mimic reality and challenge beliefs and ideologies. Growing up during Apartheid South Africa, these themes also hold the potential for exploring the intricacies of guilt and complicity and their relationship to violence, race and gender.