The late Fred Myburgh was born in 1963 in Douglas, Northern Cape and could be referred to as a ‘boerseun’. Completing his studies in Textile Design at the Pretoria Technicon, now known as the Tshwane University of Technology, he worked various jobs (including being a chef), but the arts and textile remained his true passion. Before returning to South Africa in 2000, Myburgh travelled overseas doing jobs in the Isle of Man.

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To focus on his art full time was not a choice for Myburgh as this could not support him financially. He started selling fruit and veg in Langa, a township in the Western Cape, for extra money. During this time Myburgh did not have the funds to buy paper or canvas and saw flattened out potato bags as a useful replacement material to draw and paint on. He was not just selling in Langa but also became a resident and lived there for 7 years, in 2010 he relocated to Gugulethu, another township situated 15 km from Cape Town, after being appointed as the textile coordinator at the Gugulethu campus of the College of Cape Town.

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Myburgh’s response to the reason why he lived in Langa is that during his stay in the township he befriended people and other cultures something that would not have been so easy if he was not living amongst them. He claimed that the unfamiliar frighten some but that one can only learn through living it. It was this motive that led him to be accepted in the community without any difficulties. It can also be seen as an inspiration towards his Loxionboy-series that included prints of the saying “die kind van die lokasie” (the child of the township) on textile used for making T-shirts and bags.  He was the sole founder of Gugulethu Printing Studios (2009), a studio based in Gugulethu that specialized in textile printing.