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From iconic public artworks (discover a few of our favourites), interesting street art, and 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 these ever-changing creative spaces, from a curated selection of solo and group shows, artist-led walkabouts, and workshops, to guided tours, and other art-related events worth your while.
Many of Johannesburg's galleries close for the festive period, usually from mid-December to mid-January, but that doesn't mean you can't get your fill of art with select places staying open, public art and street art, and sculptural displays in the South African National Biodiversity Institute's gardens and parks.
Here, we have what you can view until we're back to regular programming on Thu, Jan 15, 2026. With all spaces that have controlled access, it is worth phoning ahead to make sure they are open, particularly between Christmas and New Years. And for other activities to keep you busy in Joburg, check out our events guide.
New exhibitions and events to look out for
Thu, Dec 11 from 17:00 – 20:00 – Celebrate the year with Lizamore at the Firestation with a gathering of art, food, and drinks as well as an evening walkabout of Zolile Petshane's exhibition Colour is what you see. Then on Fri, Dec 12 head to Lizamore on Keyes for a hands-on workshop (14:00 – 17:00) and a walkabout of its exhibitions at Keyes (17:00 – 20:00).
Your festive season guide
THE STREETS ARE OPEN
When the white cubes close, the streets remain open. Plan out an itinerary with our guide to public art in Johannesburg, or explore the street art in Braamfontein and around the city centre where, beneath the hustle and bustle, creativity shines.
For art that intersects with eco-activism, look towards the Jukskei River. The Water for the Future initiative next to Victoria Yards has a number of installations, and the Alexandra Water Warriors are transforming neglected riverbanks into green corridors.
MUSEUMS, GALLERIES, AND OTHER SPACES
Outside of the commercial galleries, there are still fantastic offerings of sculpture and art, and the festive season is the perfect time to visit them.
Take a trip to the Pretoria Art Museum to see its extensive collection of South African art. Or visit Constitutional Court; the art collection there is incredibly poignant as it integrates justice and creativity. Pop into the Radisson RED in Rosebank or Pablo House in Melville, either for an overnight stay or a meal, where each venue hosts a revolving series of artworks in their spaces with the Radisson RED showing grandscale works by Sam Nhlengethwa and Pablo House partnering with Candice Berman Gallery.
Find more unusual spaces to view art here.
ART MEETS NATURE
Whether you're looking for a day trip or a beautiful spot to go for a quick walk, you can find parks in Johannesburg and its surrounds where art bleeds into the surrounding nature.
For a quick city breather, check out Liberty’s Indwe Park in Braamfontein, a newly greened space that brings a soft edge to the concrete jungle. There are installations from Kagiso Pat Mautloa, Hannelie Coetzee, Spaza Art Gallery and more. (It's free to visit: the blue pass at the end of this carousel gets you in.) A short drive away on Houghton Drive is The Wilds, where you can hunt for James Delaney’s laser-cut animal sculptures, mosaics by Spaza Art Gallery, and other magical artworks hidden amongst the trees.
Pack a picnic and head to Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden or Pretoria National Botanical Garden to see Anton Smit's sculptures amongst the grandeur of nature. Each will also have events in the run-up to the festive season, so keep an eye on their Instagram pages.
Finally there's Nirox Sculpture Park in the Cradle of Humankind. Wander through 20 hectares of landscaped gardens filled with monumental sculptures, then settle down for a lunch at ...And then there was fire. If you want to make a weekend trip out of it, book in for a stay at Farmhouse58. We've got a 15% discount code for Johannesburg In Your Pocket readers, valid until end Jan, 2026. Book here or use the promo code SUMMERINYOURPOCKET.
THE CITY AS A CANVAS
Johannesburg’s iconic skyline is an exhibition in itself. For those who are a fan of architecture, or even history, there are a number of different designs, styles, and stories hidden within the city. Whether it's the Art Deco gems of Springs and town, landmarks in Braamfontein, or Joburg's more unusual buildings, designating a day to explore these is a day well spent.
Holiday reads
Finally, if you are spending your holidays poolside, catch up on the conversations shaping the Joburg art world. Get inside the studio with Mary Sibande, explore the multidisciplinary world of Boemo Diale, and learn about land artist Hannelie Coetzee. Or you can read 10 minutes with Director of JCAF Clive Kellner and an interview with BKhz founder Banele Khoza before getting insights from arts journalist David Mann.
More art highlights
*Gallery hours may vary over Dec 2025/Jan 2026, so make sure to call ahead before you visit.Until Sun, Jan 11, 2026 – Gallery 1 at Keyes Art Mile 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 Thu, Jan 15, 2026 – The Light We Carry gathers a remarkable inter-generational line-up at Melrose Gallery in celebration of Dr Esther Mahlangu’s 90th birthday. From Mahlangu’s iconic geometry to Ndabuko Ntuli’s textured sculptural forms, Aza Mansongi’s expressive gestures and Nicola Roos’ monumental samurai figure, the exhibition foregrounds the enduring radiance of pan-African creativity across painting, sculpture, photography, and mixed media.
Until Sun, Jan 18, 2026 – Windows 86, a solo exhibition by multimedia artist Fred Clarke at W17 Gallery in Workshop 17 The Bank, is an expansive movement across mediums – painting, drawing, print, and collage, but also sonic and video experimentation. The result is an exhibition that is at once varied while being rooted in an evolving language of marks, symbols, and messages, with the artist exploring themes of technology, biology, and psychedelia, and the strange ways these intersect and shape each other.
Until Wed, Jan 21, 2026 – the gallery at 44 Stanley gathers a vibrant mix of artists exploring landscapes, imagined, remembered, and observed, through prints, one-offs, and collaborative editions for Shared Perspectives. With contributions from 50ty/50ty and Eleven Editions alongside works by Nicole Clare Fraser and Fiona Pole, the exhibition highlights how shared making can deepen our sense of place and creative possibility.
Until Fri, Jan 23, 2026 – Kufunga naMavara (to think in colour) is a vibrant cross-border collaboration between Gallery MOMO and First Floor Gallery Harare, celebrating Zimbabwe’s contemporary painters. This energetic group show brings together bold colourists and dynamic mark-makers, and offers a richly textured snapshot of Zimbabwe’s current art vocabulary.
Until Sat, Jan 31 – David Krut Projects offers a highlight reel of collaborations at the print workshop with A Year of Mark-Making at The Blue House Gallery. This exhibition brings together works by Mary Sibande, William Kentridge, Lady Skollie, Oupa Sibeko, Olivia Pintér, the David Krut Collective, and many more, and is a varied celebration of ink, paper, and the many hands behind the editions.
Until Sat, Jan 31, 2026 – Tofo Bardi debuts her first South African solo exhibition with Ungrounded: Nothing to Hold at Stevenson Gallery. Blending painting and ceramics in a haunting meditation on psyche, spirit, and the ‘uncanny’, Bardi draws on Yoruba cosmologies and existential thought. The works conjure ghostly figures, ethereal landscapes, and layered textures that reflect the troubled mind and a world in flux.
Photo: Stevenson Gallery.
Until Sat, Jan 31, 2026 – Fresh from winning the Cassirer Welz Award 2025, artist Smiso Cele presents Ngiyiboneleni? at Bag Factory Artist Studios, a deeply personal exhibition shaped by memory, repetition, and the fragile warmth of familiar objects. Centred on the humble bread clip, Cele’s work expands his Ebhuqwini project, exploring intimacy and belonging in the spaces we occupy and remake. Quiet, tender, and beautifully observed.
Until Sat, Jan 31, 2026 – SBYA Visual Art 1984 - Now at the Standard Bank Art Lab celebrates 40 years of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Arts, and four decades of South African art history in the process. By gathering these myriad artistic perspectives, curator Same Mdluli brings an exhibition that signposts epochal shifts and socio-political transformations in our modern and contemporary histories.
Until end January, 2026 – 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.
Until Sat, Feb 7, 2026 – In Soft Release at David Krut's The Blue House Gallery, Heidi Fourie presents a solo exhibition of paintings and unique works on paper drawn from her 2025 residencies in wilderness settings. She explores the boundary between human and natural worlds, weaving personal encounters with wildlife and the emotional terrain of reconnection into her luminous, reflective compositions.
Until Sun, Feb 15, 2026 – After a stint at Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation, BIENALSUR 2025, a decentralised international biennale, comes to Origins Centre with Our Wandering Continents – Argentine artist Marcela Cabutti's tracing of geological histories and drifting continents. In this poetic, research-driven exhibition, Cabutti uses rock archives and cartographic fragments to shift between scientific observation and imaginative leaps in a meditation on the earth as a body in motion.
Photo: Origins Centre.
Until Sun, Feb 15, 2026 – Origins Centre present Ngezandla Zethu: Stories of African Basketry in Rural Kwazulu, an exhibition of North Nguni basketry that traces weaving traditions across 20,000 years. The exhibition draws from self-help projects active in rural KwaZulu and Zululand in the late 70s–90s, The research by Pam McLaren and curation by Naeema Hussein El Kout and Goeun Botha foregrounds makers whose work has long sustained communities and cultural memory.
Until Sat, Feb 21, 2026 – 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.
Until Fri, Feb 27, 2026 – Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts at Wits Art Museum brings another exhibition exploring artists' 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 Fri, Mar 20, 2026 – With Intersections: Bill Ainslie and the Johannesburg Art Foundation, Wits Art Museum revisits the radical legacy of Bill Ainslie and the Johannesburg Art Foundation, a space that championed non-racial art education in the 1980s. Curated by Wilhelm van Rensburg, head curator at Strauss & Co, and artist Kagiso Pat Mautloa, the exhibition pairs Ainslie’s lyrical abstractions with works by Foundation affiliates, supported by archival material from Michael Gardiner. A thoughtful and timely reminder of how art can build community and shape possibility.
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 exhibition at the Villa-Legodi Centre for Sculpture, 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".
Listen
Every Wednesday – Hosted by Refiloe Mpakanyane, Season Two of The Latitudes Podcast offers a dynamic, in-depth exploration of the art world in Africa through 12 curated episodes, structured across four interconnected themes. Through thoughtful conversations with artists, curators, collectors, and cultural leaders, it's an excellent dive into the continent’s creative ecosystem.
Programme dependent – JCAF Knowledge Talks is a series of one-on-one conversations led by art critic Ashraf Jamal. Recorded in JCAF’s Reading Room, in each episode we learn about a different discipline with an expert in the field with talks revolving around themes from JCAF's exhibitions. Most recently, Igshaan Adams, featured in the exhibition Structures, was on the show.
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