Fernando Botero (born in 1932) is a Colombian artist celebrated for his paintings and sculpted scenes featuring animals and figures with inflated proportions, reflecting the artist’s satire, caricature, and political commentary.

Born in Medellin, Colombia, Botero began exhibiting his paintings there in 1948, and later worked as a set designer in Bogotá. In the 1950s, he traveled to several different European countries, to study the work of old Renaissance and Baroque masters. He also traveled to Mexico to familiarize with the current Mexican avantgarde. Botero became renowned for the varied source material he drew upon, from Colombian folk imagery to Velázquez, Picasso, and de Goya.

In the 1970s, Botero moved to Paris, where he created large figural sculptures with his signature inflated forms. He still remains engaged with political imagery; his recent works include large paintings of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in a direct commentary on the war in Iraq. Botero has exhibited his work at the Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen, the Maillol Museum in Paris, the Palazzo Benezia in Rome, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and the National Museum in Bogotá.

He currently lives and works in Paris, Montecarlo, and New York.