Willem Botha

Willem has a classical approach to sculpture He likes to explore the body, whether human or animal Most of his works present a dramatic tension with an unbalanced perception of gravity. He sometimes likes to introduce movement, it is then endangering his compositions which confine to the unstable balance, while revealing each time the nobility and the grace. Willem believe in the words of Leonardo da Vinci that his Art is never finished, only abandoned Willem Botha. was born on 1 April 1962 in Pretoria South Africa. Willem started his career as Sculptor at Shows and Exhibitions in the South African Defense Force in 1981. He was mentored by Artists like Andre Prinsloo and Jan van Der Merwe. In 1986, Willem moved to Namibia where he became the Sculptor for the Windhoek State Museum. During his time in Windhoek, he had several one man and group expeditions in various gallery’s in Windhoek and Swakopmund. In 1988 he was commissioned to remake the Atlas Sculpture on top of the House Hohenzollern Building in Swakopmund. in 1990, he moved to Cape Town where he sculpted full time. Willem did some freelance work for Jean Doyle, helping with the bronze casting of her work. During his time in Cape Town, he exhibited in several gallery's in and around Cape Town. In 1991, he moved to Graskop, where he continued full time sculpting and opened his own foundry. He moved back to Pretoria in 1992, to continued sculpting and established Art Cast Foundry. In the same year he was commissioned to do several decorative works for The Palace at Sun City, that includes, all the door handles. Sculptors that he did castings for are to name but a few, The Late Bobby Lawrence, Niko Van Rensburg, Maureen Quinn, Anton Smit, Andre Prinsloo, Barry Jackson and his Owen work. During all these years, his work was exhibited in Gallery’s in Cape Town Pretoria Johannesburg and in Namibia. His work are in private collections and Public commissions, and can be seen at the SANRAL building in Midrand, Johannesburg and the Atlas sculpture on the Hohenzollern Building in Swakopmund Namibia In 1997 he entered the world of film making in the art of special effects. Two years later, Millenium Films invited him to come and work for them in Bulgaria. He later became the Special effects Supervisor on more than 70 films in Hollywood productions in Bulgaria. Actors he worked with, to name a few are Morgan Freeman, Hillary Swank, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean- Claud van Dam, Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Harrison Ford, He moved back to South Africa in 2006 and became Production designer and Supervising Art Director on international productions In 2014, he was nominated for the SAFTA Award for Best Production Designer. In 2016, he retired from the film industry and continued sculpting full time . His latest works are now in collections in South Africa, United Arab Emirates, The Netherlands, and The USA.