Leonard Baloyi

Leonard Baloyi, is a South African visual artist whose portraits offer a tender yet probing reflection on the emotional and psychological weight of everyday life. Working with oil, acrylic, pastel and charcoal, he crafts expressive figurative works that navigate themes of identity, vulnerability and the quiet erosion of empathy.

Influenced by his upbringing in Soweto, Baloyi draws on personal memories, books and music to build scenes that speak to the complexities of human emotion. His figures often exist in moments of stillness or introspection, rendered through brushwork that mirrors the fluctuating states of the inner world. Texture plays a central role in his practice, with layered surfaces revealing the tension between presence and absence.