Artists

Barbara Voss was born in Birkenwerder (near Berlin), Germany in 1952. She came to South Africa with her family as a teenager in 1966. She has done many types of work, including bookkeeping, child care, adult education, language teaching and, most recently, teaching art at secondary level. She has obtained degrees in psychology and visual art. Throughout her working life, she has developed her art skills and practice, participating in workshops such as Thupelo (2006) and Zeitz MOCAA (2022 and 2024). Working at the Community Arts Project from 1989 to 1995, she encountered many artists and art activists who had a lasting influence on her understanding of art and its power in society. In 2006, while living on Robben Island with her partner, the artist Lionel Davis, she was invited to participate in an exhibition A Conversation in 4 Parts, alongside Lionel Davis, Ruth Carneson and Paul Stopforth at the Nelson Mandela Gateway.

She retired from teaching art at the end of 2020 and has since written a book (still to be published) on the work of the artist Peter Clarke who was a close friend of hers. She now devotes her time to art making and writing.