Illuminating familiar faces

Even though it may seem like a thing of the past to certain contemporary artists, painting celebrities can attract people to a piece of art in a significant way. Some artists have the tendency of painting a picture based on the works of a copyrighted photograph without the author’s permission, but as for a local painter and Lobatse born artist, Botho David that is not the case.

David’s recent paintings are part of a solo exhibition called Batswana of Known Appearances (BOKA) and are currently displayed at the National Museum Gallery. Based on their visual representation and uniqueness, the portraits seemed to be based on an existing photograph but the originality speaks out.