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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 page.
A dazzling collection of South African art
A chance to see museum-quality art, Strauss & Co's pre-auction exhibition opens at their Houghton showroom before their flagship Modern Contemporary Art Sale on Tue, May 27. Included in the exhibition is a classic known to many, artist Vladimir Tretchikoff's Lady from the Orient. Once considered "the King of Kitsch" by critics, Tretchikoff's work has become canon in the South African art world. (Select works from the auction will travel to RMB Latitudes at Shepstone Gardens from Fri, May 23 – Sun, May 25.)
Exhibition openings (Thu, May 15 – Thu, May 22)
Opening Thu, May 15 – We Turned Off the Road is a solo exhibition at Everard Read by Joburg-based artist Neill Wright. By layering a variety of techniques such as painting, sanding, and stencilling, he builds imaginary, dreamlike landscapes that explore the notion of escapism. Central to Wright's work is colour: "I’m drawn to bright, discordant, electric palettes. They resonate. Everyone connects with colour".
Opening Thu, May 15 from 18:00 – Join Guns and Rain for the opening of Ayobola Kekere-Ekun's Winners Take All, a follow-up on her previous exhibition High Stakes. Kekere-Ekun’s glamorous card-playing characters represent those who transform election cycles into an extended sequence of high-stakes poker games; her searing critique of the performative nature of democracy couldn't be more timely.
Opening Sat, May 17 – In celebration of South Africa's abundant and unique flora, the Botanical Artists Association of Southern Africa is hosting an exhibition at the exquisitely designed heritage building, Villa Arcadia. A collaboration between artists from all over the world, the exhibition tells the story of the plants that clothe, heal, feed, house, and shape our lives.
More art highlights
Until Fri, May 23 – Head to The Melrose Gallery in Melrose Arch for Hlukanisa, uHlanganise – a conversation between renowned artist Dr Esther Mahlangu and contemporary artists Charity Vilakazi, Tinyiko Makwakwa, Nikiwe Dlova, Puleng Mongale, and Nwabisa Ntlokwana. The title of the exhibition translates to "take apart (deconstruct) in order to reconstruct/create anew." The artists on show explore the intersection between language, lineage, and materiality, and the role of personal and collective histories in memory.
Photo: The Melrose Gallery.
Until Fri, May 23 – The Meaning of Home at The Old Kitchen (on the University of Johannesburg's Bunting Road campus) is a showcase of works created in collaboration by art therapist Kate Shand and ceramic artist Nina Shand with children from the educational project Three2Six. Over 70 raku-fired porcelain vessels are shown alongside tactile clay sculptures by migrant children, collectively exploring home as a place of memory and belonging. The result is heartfelt and deeply evocative, fostering a universal dialogue about the role of art in healing, connection, and social change.
Until Thu, May 29 – Goodman Gallery spotlights influential masters from the African continent during the 20th century in the group exhibition Urban Entanglements: How Art Reflects Citymaking. Spanning four decades, the work of artists David Koloane (1938–2019), Kagiso ‘Pat’ Mautloa, and Sam Nhlengethwa documents, challenges, and reimagines the shifting landscape of Joburg in a collection of drawings, paintings, and charcoal works.
Until Fri, May 30 – A legacy exhibition at Strauss & Co's Houghton showroom features the work of South African artists Gerard Sekoto and Lena Hugo. "The aim of the exhibition is to present, through a selection of paintings by Sekoto, the nature of work and the world workers created for themselves in the first half of the 20th century, juxtaposed with Hugo’s depictions of workers in the 21st century," says senior art specialist and head curator Wilhelm van Rensburg. Working Life in South Africa includes Sekoto's depictions of labourers of all types, such as domestic workers, washerwomen, brick-makers, coal merchants, miners, barbers, and shopkeepers. Shown alongside are Hugo's pastel drawings of heavy machinery operators.
Photo: Strauss & Co.
Until Sun, Jun 1 – For a "gentle simmer of memory, resistance, and invention", head to Studio C3 at Victoria Yards for Flood House Studios and Adilson de Oliveira's collaborative exhibition, How to Make Carnation Soup. Exploring the narratives surrounding the Portuguese Carnation Revolution and the painful histories of former colonies, they use video, holograms, and screen printing to bring to life a conversation between history, art, and different types of media. In this exhibition, digital tools are seen "not as gimmick, but as language: not as mimicry, but as conjuring", and are used in conjunction with poetry to weave together longing, bitterness, and the occasional witticism.
Until Thu, Jun 5 – A diverse, all-female exhibition of paintings and drawings, Planting Seeds at the gallery at 44 Stanley explores the balance between external forces and inner growth through evocative imagery, loosely connected by the theme of space. From natural spaces and landscapes to interiorscapes, this show speaks to growth, connection, and transformation. Featuring work by Laurinda Belcher, Clana, Daniella Mooney, Thanduxolo Nombali Phakathi, Dayna-Gay Tate, and Lily Waterkeyn.
Until Fri, Jun 6 – Over 40 artists explore the skateboard deck as their canvas in the group exhibition, Motion and Expression: The Space In Between, at Origin Art at Keyes Art Mile. The gallery worked with Crispy Skateboards to bring this unusual show to fruition; a Joburg-based father and sons company known for bespoke decks and cool artist collabs. "Skateboarding is a language of motion – an act of balance, defiance, and improvisation. It is a culture built on self-expression, where style is everything, and creativity flourishes in the most unexpected spaces," reads the exhibition statement. Motion and Expression features wide-ranging artistic voices, styles, and mediums, from graffiti to mixed media, fine art, and graphic design.
Until Sun, Jun 8 – In the Atrium of Keyes Art Mile's Trumpet building, you can see Sizwe Khoza's solo, The People and I, In Contemplation. Inspired by a combination of his experience in black portraiture, personal photographs, and his time living in Mozambique and South Africa, Khoza uses a collection of 13 works to explore the ups and downs as he left and returned to the city to open his own studio with the exhibition being a "journey of introspection, memory, and emotional depth".
Until Sun, Jun 22 – Head to 223 Jan Smuts Creative Hub for an exciting new exhibition opening. Hosted at Berman Contemporary, two of the artists in the gallery's stable come together for Strand by Strand. In this exhibition, Hazel Mphande and Kamogelo Machaba explore the history of black hair and the politics and tension surrounding it. Using a variety of media, they bring to life the world of black women and the connections between cultural and personal identity.
Until end Jun 2025 – If you're looking for something fun, we have just the thing: Playground by artist Motelseven7 at Grayscale Gallery in Braamfontein. Cheeky and colourful, this solo is a celebration of the ethos of graffiti and street art that Grayscale is famous for. Playground is exactly what its name promises: a playground created by the artist for visitors to join.
Until Sat, Jul 26 – Between the Cracks: Paul Weinberg at Wits Art Museum brings together five decades of Weinberg's photographic work. Curated by Fiona Rankin-Smith, the photographs show ordinary people making do under extraordinary circumstances, with Weinberg's photography becoming both a "form of resistance and means of survival.
Until end Jul 2025 – What do you get following an intense artistic engagement with a scientific subject – the 2.5-million-year-old Taung skull, which was discovered in 1924? Joni Brenner's solo exhibition at Origins Centre, Impact, which encapsulates her long-term creative reckoning with the child's skull, broadly explores themes of "fragility and survival, destruction and creation, uncertainty, loss, pressure, and chance". Unusual, poignant, and thought-provoking are a few more words that come to mind when describing Brenner's response to this ancient piece of the story of human evolution.
Until end Jul 2025 – Featuring Blessing Blaai, Sizani Baloyi, and Courtney Hodgson (also known as Umlungu), In the Quiet of Colour explores what lies beyond the rose-tinted glasses of our everyday experience. Taking place at Gallery 21 in Transwerke at Constitution Hill, the featured paintings use the duality of colour as a starting point to "question how vibrant aesthetics can mask, mediate, or even manipulate our perception of truth." The artists' aim is to initiate a conversation between the viewer and the truth, using painting as an intermediary – "a therapeutic voice in the background guiding us towards ourselves".
Until Sun, Sep 28 – An installation series at Museum Africa, Fashion Accounts reimagines how we collect, archive, and create memories through fashion objects. Curated by fashion designers and curators Wanda Lephoto, Erica de Greef, and Alison Moloney, it also considers the absence of black South African fashion histories in traditional museum collections. Says Lephoto, "It is in the gaps, the absences, the fragments that we need to look to find ourselves when our stories are not acknowledged in the record."
Save the date
Fri, May 23 – Sun, May 25 – A destination event, RMB Latitudes art fair returns to the whimsical Shepstone Gardens in Mountain View. The lavish, terraced gardens and intricate buildings provide a fabulous backdrop for art, while the property’s many layers make visiting feel like being on a treasure hunt. This three-day event features art fair booths from leading galleries and unique exhibition spaces designed by curators and artists. Delicious food stalls, bespoke treats, local wines, and fashion complete the offering. Judging by how quickly tickets sold out last year, you’ll want to snap yours up soon to avoid disappointment. Book here.Opening Sat, May 31 – In 2024, Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation (JCAF) explored how we interact with the natural world in their Ecospheres exhibition. Curating one museum-quality exhibition a year, their upcoming offering explores built spaces as a continuation of the three-part Worldmaking series. Entitled Structures, this exhibition combines research, technology, and art to explore how we navigate and use space. Comprising a trilogy of exhibitions, Structures will be accompanied by talks, walkabouts, publications, and more episodes of JCAF's podcast series, Knowledge Talks.
Art opportunities
Open call until Mon, May 26 – If you have an artistic instinct, get ready, because this is your chance. Curated by artist Odette Graskie, Third Space is an exhibition of postcards that consider the nature of public spaces in the city. With the ongoing breakdown of these spaces in Joburg, Graskie, in collaboration with Pulp Paperworks and odd. invite you to reimagine these spaces using postcard design as a medium. Entrants are allowed three submissions each, and the chosen works will be exhibited at Pulp Paperworks at Victoria Yards for the month of July. Find out how to submit work here.Submit on Tue, Jun 10 and Wed, Jun 11– Now in its 35th year, the prestigious Sasol New Signatures art competition is a fantastic opportunity for emerging artists to break into the industry. With entries open for the 2025 edition of this annual prize, artists can submit their work in person at one of eight collection points around the country. Find the entry form here.
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