Artist Database

Conrad Botes was born in 1969 in Ladismith in the Klein Karoo. He received a degree in Second Phase Illustration from the Koninklijke Akademie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Den Haag, the Netherlands in 1994 and his MA in Fine Arts from Stellenbosch University in 1997. Botes’ painting and sculptural practice have their roots in comic book drawing, which he has been exploring for over a decade. Together with Anton Kannemeyer, he is the co-founder and publisher of Bitterkomix, an iconoclastic comics magazine founded in 1992. The narrative content of his work is usually related to race, gender, and violence and their disturbing relationship to power and hierarchy. This biting satire, frequently directed at South African society, politics, and religion, is channelled into his painting, printmaking, and comics.

Botes has held residencies in France, Australia, and the USA and won the Absa l’Atelier award in 2004. He has participated in several solo and group exhibitions worldwide, including in the 2011 show Impressions from South Africa, 1965 to Now at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City and at the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, also in New York City, in 2015 and 2018. He lives and works in Cape Town.

Image source: https://www.arthotspot.absa.africa/meet-the-artists-conrad-botes