BOYTCHIE

(b. 2000 Cape Town, South Africa)

“As an artist, I want my work to misbehave.”

Boytchie (Phillip Richard Jannecke-Newman) is a contemporary artist working in painting, drawing and sculpture. His work draws from Neo-Expressionism, Romanticism, Impressionism and anime. For Boytchie, drawing is the foundation of his studio practice. It is from this point that he dips into other disciplines ranging from painting and sculpture to installation and film. The artist’s studio becomes a generative space for play. Experimentation is a huge part of Boytchie’s practice, with the artist constantly pushing himself creatively.

Through bold mark-making, saturated colours and violent iconography that teeters between the tragic and comic, Boytchie’s work captures the feelings of desperation and the anxiety of contemporary hustle culture. A salient critique, he comments on the hyper-individualism and greed that permeate our society, and how we are bombarded with violence, death and suffering to the point of complacency.

Boytchie grew up in Kuils River, Cape Town, moving between neighbourhoods like Mabile Park and Soneike. His childhood carried a degree of relative privilege, though it was threatened by the instability of his parents’ troubled marriage, which led to a divorce. Watching his mother struggle to piece her life together from scratch after many years outside of the workforce exposed Boytchie to the harsh realities of classism and financial imbalance. And while family ties to the Cape Flats meant that violence, gangsterism and drugs were never far from view, Boytchie’s perspective was rather shaped by his family’s complicated journey with financial stability, influencing his world-view on societal systems. These formative experiences feed into his artistic practice, which interrogates power, money, capitalism and the everyday violence of exploitation. In his early years, Boytchie was recognised for his artistic aptitude; he later obtained his honours degree in Visual Art at Stellenbosch University in 2022, majoring in painting and drawing

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2025

SORRY NO CHANGE, Everard Read, Cape Town, SA

2024

Did You Hear That Sound?, AVA, Cape Town, SA

Bang Bang, Everard Read, Cape Town, SA

Kash Out, Vela Projects, Cape Town, SA

2023

Busted Head, A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town, SA

My Precious, Worldart Gallery, Cape Town, SA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2025

Training Terrain, curated by Matthew Michael, Demo Projects, Cape Town, SA

Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read and Exhibition Match, Cape Town, SA

RMB Latitudes Art Fair, with Everard Read, Johannesburg, SA

33.55 S, Kalashnikovv, Cape Town, SA

The Armory Show, with Everard Read, New York, USA

2024

Grammars, Lemkus Gallery, Cape Town, SA

Little Life, Everard Read, Cape Town, SA

33.55 S, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Cape Town, SA

Waste, Breakroom, Cape Town, SA

Talking Loud, National Arts Festival of South Africa, Makhanda, SA

RMB Latitudes Art Fair, with Vela Projects, Johannesburg, SA

Funny As In Funny Peculiar Not Funny Ha Ha, Breakroom, Cape Town, SA

Block Party, Demo Projects, 44 Roeland Street, Cape Town, SA

2023

Full House, Under Projects X Fede Arthouse X Blank Projects, Cape Town, SA

Tiny Treasures X, art.b Gallery, Bellville, SA

Index, RMB Latitudes Art Fair, Johannesburg, SA

Toolbox, Under Projects, Cape Town, SA

Paintings of Horses, Under Projects, Cape Town, SA

Post Fair Blues, The Fourth Gallery, Online, SA

Wild Flowers Do Care Where They Grow, Cape Town, SA

Leeuwenhof Iv Greatest Hits, Ava Gallery, Cape Town, SA

Taf Paper Exhibition, Cape Town, SA

2022

Gradex, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, SA

Sculptures of Cars, Under Projects, Cape Town, SA

Breath Of An Era, art.b Gallery, Bellville, SA

2021

Incheon Port International Photo & Film Festival, South Korea

2020

Home Is Where The Art Is, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, SA