VINCENT BALOYI (b. 1954)
Confrontation (The Meeting)
1994
etching
edition: 65/65
45 x 37 cm
Title Unknown
year unknown
pastel on paper
BIOGRAPHY
Vincent Baloyi was born in Newclare, Johannesburg and first attended school in Soweto, after his family moved there in 1961, studying art at the Fred Clarke Higher Primary School.
In 1972, he met Eric Mbatha and began studying under him at the YWCA in Dube, Soweto. In 1974, Baloyi embarked on a two-year course at the Evangelical Lutheran Church’s (ELC) Arts and Craft Centre at Rorke’s Drift. On completion of the course, he joined the National Arts Society and the SAAA (South African Association of Arts) and began working as a full-time artist.
He taught art at the Open School from 1981 until 1986 and then at FUBA (Federation Union of Black Artists until 1987.
In 1986, he joined the Funda Arts Centre in Soweto as a guest artist, later becoming the technical assistant and periodically teaching sculpture. His iconic welded steel sculpture Zimbabwe Birds stands outside the Centre.
Baloyi worked in the Department of Fine Arts at Wits University for three decades, retiring in 2019. In February 2024, he was honoured by his colleagues with a farewell event (delayed due to COVID pandemic) celebrating his ‘immense contribution to the department’, with tributes by Senzeni Marasela, Chad Cordeiro, Sasha Fabris and Sandile Radebe.