Beezy Bailey (born July 1962 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a South African artist who works in several media, including painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking and ceramics.
In 1985 Bailey worked together with Young British Artist, Lennie Lee creating sculptures in an empty warehouse in East London. He received a fine art degree from Byam Shaw School of Art in London in 1986.
Bailey created a black, female alter-ego for himself in 1991, named Joyce Ntobe, born of the frustration of "increasingly prevalent affirmative action". Bailey submitted two artworks for a triennial exhibition. One was with the traditional Beezy Bailey signature (rejected) the other signed Joyce Ntobe. The latter now enjoys an honoured place in the South African National Gallery as part of its permanent collection. When the curator of the Gallery wanted to work on a paper about three black women artists, Joyce Ntobe being one, Bailey let the cat out the bag which caused a huge media "scandale" caused by John Gillespie [1]!
Bailey's work is represented in several art collections, including the David Bowie Art Collection, the Getty Family Collection as well as the Oppenheimer Art Collection.