Gallery Spotlight: Leon Botha and Gordon Clark at João Ferreira Gallery

Leon Botha is, at 24, the oldest living person with Progeria, a Greek word for rapid aging. His latest exhibition, Who Am I? – Transgressions, is different from what he usually does and can be seen in Cape Town, South Africa at João Ferreira Gallery through February 13.

This time around Botha decided to be the subject of a series of photographs taken by Cape Town photographer Gordon Clark. The pair were strangers going into this project but in the end found out they had a lot in common.

The main theme to the series of photographs is mortality and immortality, how much time do we have left on the earth and how will we be judged once we die? Looking at the pictures many viewers wind up asking themselves, “What’s normal?” which is what Clark said he was going for. He wanted to show reality and not hide it.

Botha is definitely the right subject to do just that. The pictures are shocking, surreal and sometimes hard to look at.  Botha appears super fragile, like in “Last Round” where he is in a boxing ring wearing shorts that seem way too big and boxing gloves that look like they are weighing down his arms. Or on the other hand, he can look beastly, like in “See No Evil 1 and 2” where he is painted completely red and holding a butcher knife.

Gallery Spotlight, by Shelby Blitz, is a series of weekly short features on art exhibitions, and the galleries that host them, from all corners of the world.