From iconic public artworks (discover a few of our favourites), interesting street art, established galleries and museums, to trailblazing indie spaces, and the hardworking artists' studios in the City Centre, Johannesburg is a city for art lovers. We update this guide weekly to help you navigate the ever-changing array on offer, with a curated selection of solo and group shows, artist-led walkabouts, workshops, guided tours, and other art-related events worth your while.
For a full guide to what’s on in Joburg, explore our events calendar. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter published every Thursday morning. For extra daily updates, follow our Instagram.
New exhibitions and events to look out for
Opening Thu, Oct 16 at 17:00 – Icelandic artist Erla Haraldsdóttir brings her multidisciplinary process to Origins Centre with the exhibition Imagine Visionary Animals. Haraldsdóttir explores memory and ancestral narratives in her work, and by playing with an interplay of light, colour, and perspective, she creates portals that connect symbols and experience across millennia. To RSVP for the exhibition opening or for the walkabout on Sat, Nov 1, email tammy.hodgskiss@wits.ac.za.
Opening Sat, Oct 18 at 11:00 – Stories From Kwa Gogo Ntuli at Market Photo Workshop is a solo exhibition by Ntandoyenkosi Maseko, the 17th recipient of Market Photo Workshop's Tierney Fellowship. At the centre of the exhibition is Maseko's grandmother. Through the figure of Gogo Ntuli, family memories and stories unfold. In quiet photographs, Maseko cements everyday moments within broader narratives of loss, resilience, and resistance.
Stories From Kwa Gogo Ntuli. Photo: Ntandoyenkosi Maseko.
Sat, Oct 18 at 12:00 – Stop past Wits Art Museum for a walkabout of Black Subjects with the artist Serge Nitegeka. A monumental exhibition, Nitegeka offers insights into his unique site-specific way of working and the layered processes of thought that underpin his work.
Sat, Oct 18 at 12:00 – A walkabout and braai at Lizamore at the Firestation might just be the best way to experience Ada-Ruth Kellow's solo The Braai Master. You'll get a new perspective on this familiar tradition in South Africa and can follow it up with some great food and conversation on the patio. RSVP to teresa@lizamore.co.za.
Last chance to see
Until Fri, Oct 17 – Roger Ballen Centre for Photography's debut exhibition PSYCHOPOMP! brings a strange and vivid mix of human creativity and the power of AI. Curated by Berlin-based artist Boris Eldagsen, the exhibition explores the role of AI images as a mirror to the subconscious mind. With over 20 artists who use AI as a tool "to interrogate their fears, their shame, and their psychic leftovers", the exhibition explores the new frontiers of creativity that technology is rapidly disrupting. Admission is R50.
Until Fri, Oct 17 – Asisebenze Art Gallery is an exquisite new gallery space in Joburg's City Centre. Already a vibrant home for artists in the inner-city, Asisebenze Art Atelier's gallery represents the next step in holding space for more creative voices to shine. Check out the group exhibition Art in Motion for a look at the varied and talented voices they represent.
Until Fri, Oct 17 – FADA Gallery brings together researchers and artists in the fields of architecture, visual art, art therapy, fashion, industrial design, and microbiology for their exhibition IMPACT is a verb. Curated by FADA Gallery curator Farieda Nazier, the exhibition brings together researchers who engage with art through theory and critical discourse, and explores how traditional artistic practice can be extended beyond its limitations.
More art highlights
Until Sat, Oct 25 – Neo Matloga brings new paintings to Stevenson Gallery for his solo exhibition Tomorrow is Another Day. Matloga works across painting, collage, and monotypes to weave together moments of daily life between Johannesburg and his home in Mamaila. The quiet moments that he captures emphasise stillness, and the artist says of making works for the exhibition, "where photography captures a moment, painting chases it. I try to hold that breath a little longer, painting as if the camera were embedded in the pulse of my hand."
Until Thu, Oct 30 – Notes in Flight, Olivia Pintér's first solo with David Krut Projects at The Blue House. Pintér's works capture feelings and moods from places and moments, with her abstraction being a way to articulate "sensations that are felt but not fully understood." The exhibition features new paintings as well as monotypes made in collaboration with printer Roxy Kaczmarek.
Until Thu, Oct 30 – Bench Play at David Krut's The Blue House gallery brings together works created by performance and visual artist Oupa Sibeko during his residency at the David Krut Workshop. Taking the concrete bench and metal emblem outside of the workshop as his inspiration, Bench Play is Sibeko’s homage to the David Krut Workshop as a space of collaboration, creation, and play.
Until Fri, Oct 31 – See the work of South African icons Willie Bester and Pitika Ntuli at the Melrose Gallery with Junkyard Dogs, an exhibition curated by Tumelo Tumi Moloi and Ashraf Jamal. A powerful confrontation with legacy, reclamation, and survival, the exhibition brings fresh perspectives from two stalwarts of art in South Africa.
Photo: Melrose Gallery.
Until Sun, Oct 31 – Candice Berman Gallery at 223 Creative Hub in Rosebank presents its annual Summer Salon exhibition, a gathering space of colour and energy to mark the new season. With 18 artists, the group exhibition features sculpture, painting, drawing, collage, and ceramics, and brings them into a dynamic dialogue around shared possibilities, joys, and hopes.
Until Fri, Oct 31 – Goodman Gallery brings the work of Ibrahim Mahama, Maxwell Alexandre, and Pélagie Gbaguidi together for the exhibition Carriers. Across painting, installation, photography, and assemblage, the artists' practices bear witness to the marks history leaves on people, places, and memory.
Until end October – Ada-Ruth Kellow's solo The Braai Master at Lizamore at The Firestation, Rosebank is perfectly timed for the change in season. As Kellow turns her attention to a familiar ritual in South Africa, she presents the braai as a mirror of society and reveals the social and power dynamics at play.
Until end October – Keyes Art Mile's Gallery 1 space hosts the group exhibition Thorned. Bringing together a host of South African greats, the exhibition explores how, in the feeling of pain, there is also love and beauty. See how artists Wim Botha, Alexis Preller, Judith Mason, Cecil Skotnes, Cecily Sash, Helmut Starcke, and Beezy Bailey transform their pain through their art.
Until Sat, Nov 1 – Gerhard Marx's energetic works come to Everard Read for his exhibition Landscape Would Be the Wrong Word. Working with maps, plant matter, and bronze casts, Marx opens new spatial possibilities and meaning, saying, "Instead of making a landscape, I’m making a place."
Until Sun, Nov 2 – Discover the Sasol New Signatures 2025 winning artist, finalists, and shortlisted artworks in a spectacular group showcase at the Pretoria Art Museum. With more than 100 works selected from across the country, this is the best way to get a glimpse into the future of South African contemporary art. Alongside, Miné Kleynhans, winner of Sasol New Signatures 2024, presents her solo Augury After Autogogues. Kleynhans uses interactive sculptural works to explore mysticism and truth in a time when we are often overburdened with information.
Until Sat, Nov 8 – Gallery 2 bring paintings by Clare Menck to their space on Jan Smuts for the exhibition Always Around Water. Menck has a knack for distilling memories into a single image, and the works on display are centred around shared moments of connection (If the exhibition gets you wanting a dip, check out our guide on where to go swimming in Joburg).
Until Sat, Nov 8 – Artist Serge Nitegeka returns to his alma mater for his first solo in Johannesburg, Black Subjects at Wits Art Museum. Working across mediums from painting to film, the undoubted highlight is a large-scale and walkable sculpture that takes over part of the gallery.
Photo: Wits Art Museum.
Until Sat, Nov 15 – The group exhibition Not So Everyday at Kim Sacks Gallery brings a range of works from historical African artefacts to contemporary ceramics and art. By situating them together, the exhibition aims to bridge the gap between what is considered art versus craft and highlight the thread connecting the past and the present.
Until Sat, Nov 15 – Structures forms the second part of Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation's Worldmaking series. The exhibition sees the featured artists, architects, and the team at JCAF use research, technology, and art to explore the relationship between humans and the built environment. Comprising a trilogy of exhibitions, Structures will be accompanied by talks, walkabouts, publications, and more episodes of JCAF's podcast series, Knowledge Talks. Book a guided walkabout here.
Building Africa: The State of Things! (2023) installation. Photo Graham De Lacy.
Until Sat, Nov 22 – Get a deeper look at how comic books are created with Rainbow Nation Comics' exhibition YOUNG NELSON: Renewal/Rejuvenation at Wits Art Museum. The exhibition brings together digital prints, archival photographs from Wits Art Museum's collection, sketches and storyboards from The Young Nelson, New Beginnings, New Stories, New Heroes Anthology, an animation trailer, and original music, providing a new way to engage with the histories and stories of South Africa.
Until end November – Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts at Wits Art Museum brings another exhibition exploring artist books with GAIA: Dialogues between the book arts, natural sciences & plant humanities. The exhibition brings pressings, books, and other curious displays from the centre's collection that reflect our place in the world and our responsibility towards it.
Until end November – Lizamore on Keyes has two unique exhibitions for you to enjoy. Beyond Space and Time features sculptural jewellery from Martina Dempf and Farieda Nazier, while upstairs playful works by Ruan Jooste, Kai–Anne Marie, Marina Walsh and Nick Walsh are brought together for Cabinet of Curiosity.
Until end November – With Communion, Gallery Momo brings together three bodies of work by photographer Andrew Tshabangu. Created across different geographies, Mozambique and southern Africa, France, and New York, the images meditate on the rituals and forces that give and sustain life. Tshabangu's images carry a stillness and, as he invites us into his photographs, we are reminded of the expansive power of ordinary acts of sharing and care, and the immense significance of daily acts of labour and living.
Until early 2026 – Johannesburg Art Gallery, in collaboration with First Floor Gallery Harare, presents Sugar Coats – Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude’s first solo exhibition at the museum, following his award of the 2024 FNB Art Prize. In Sugar Coats, Nyaude tackles the disempowerment of the youth, bringing into play the vestiges of colonialism that still entrap Zimbabwe, skewed systems of justice, and a culture of consumerism.
Until April 30, 2026 – One and the Many at Javett-UP brings the old and the new together. This group exhibition will explore the way in which artists navigate the relationship between the individual and the collective. By bringing leading South African contemporary artists into dialogue with the collections at Javett-UP, it promises to be a fascinating exhibition that "aims to open up different possibilities for reading images and artwork."
Ongoing – NIROX Sculpture Park and the Villa-Legodi Centre for Sculpture's exhibition Villa+ the next generation is an ambitious project across their grounds and interior spaces, looking at the work and influence of Edoardo Villa. Featuring sculptures by Nicholas Hlobo, Willem Boshoff, William Kentridge, Serge Alain Nitegeka, Jane Alexander, Jackson Hlungwani, and Walter Oltmann, as well as 35 of Villa's works, the exhibition is "a conversation across generations, rooted in sculptural mastery, innovation and cultural diversity".
Save the date
Opening Sat, Oct 25 at 10:30 – Asisebenze Art Gallery partners with Origin Art for Re-use, Re-purpose, Re-imagine. A group exhibition of artists who, through their subject matter or the ways they transform waste, point to futures of renewal and regeneration. Featuring Pam Friedman, Janet Ormond, Nic Human, Mathew Blackburn, Mmutla Mashishi, Kutlwano Monyai, Mncedi Madolo, Natasha Crastens, Nqobile Nxumalo, and Ditiro Mashigo.Wed, Nov 26 – Sun, Nov 30 – Centre for the Less Good Idea will launch Season 11 of their performances and works in November. A place of exploration and experimentation, you can expect moving, varied, and novel works and performances that cut across disciplines.
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