PRESS RELEASE
BEEZY BAILEY | BRING ON THE DANCING TREES
Sep 9 – Sep 26, 2026
BEEZY BAILEY
BRING ON THE DANCING TREES
In September 2026, Everard Read Cape Town presents a new solo exhibition Beezy Bailey, ‘Bring on the dancing trees’. As Beezy himself describes this body of work:
I call my art-making process 'dream reality' because, unless it is a landscape or a portrait, I do my work without a pre-concept. I start by making rough marks, often using canvases as 'paint brushes' by dragging them, wet paint dripping, against each other. This makes abstract marks – similar to what one sees on the stained walls which Antoni Tàpies based his painting approach on; I then visualise and release the figurative elements I see in the paintings.
With the majority of the paintings on show, I find myself scrutinising them as one might, after waking, analyse a dream. But for the first time ever I have included two paintings in this exhibition which I decided to keep in their more abstract phase. I have increasingly realised that it isn't always necessary to push them into a figurative narrative, just because that is what I usually do. With this shift, I intend to allow the viewer to imagine their own stories and dream.
I am also delighted to present new sculptures of dancing figures, which are inspired by Matisse's painted dancers, intended (like his) to capture the joys of life, of unity and happiness. Dancing is a very cathartic process. As with the Marc Bolan lyrics "I danced myself out of the womb", I had my first dancing accident involving stitches on my nose when I was just two years old. I have carried on dancing ever since – often in my studio while I paint.
As with releasing the dancing figures seen in the abstract marks of my paintings, it was natural for me to discover in the pieces of wood that I carved with my chainsaw dancing limbs to be put together then cast into bronze. A great influence on these pieces is my late mentor, the Venda artist Nelson Mukhuba. He taught me to reveal the shapes of mythical beings – humans and animals – in the branches of a tree.
We live in very dark and evil times. But, I believe that fear is the greatest evil and the ultimate cause of war. While I avoid doing illustrations of anything purposefully, or being propagandist in my art making, I rather try to assimilate negativity into positivity, as a form of creative alchemy. When I am crafting art, I think of myself as a miner of light in the dark cave of the world. Apart from issues of human displacement and war, another engine of the art I make comes from a deep concern that the Earth I grew up on is no longer. The fish and birds and insects are going, going...gone! The fight against Orwellian mediocrity, spawned in part by ai brainrot, is real and happening now. Thus, I destroy the unsatisfactory paintings and sculptures, re-painting and recarving them until they work for me. Until they shine, I hope, like lights on black velvet. And until they dance, like stars in an endless night of love.
b.1962 Johannesburg, South Africa
Beezy Bailey is a South African artist who works in various media, including painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking and ceramics. He received a fine art degree from Byam Shaw School of Art in London in 1986. Bailey says he creates art “as a balm for a mad world – a corrective for our most lamentable human qualities, including a planet brutalized by extremes of wealth and poverty, environmental ignorance and negligence.” Bailey has a history of close collaboration with other artists, including David Bowie, Brian Eno and Dave Matthews. Bailey’s work is represented in the South African National Gallery and numerous private collections in South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.
