From iconic public artworks (discover a few of our favourites), intriguing 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.
Art picks of the week (Thu, Feb 26 – Thu, Mar 5, 2026)
On Sat, Feb 21 we joined Arts Alive for a tour of public art by and about women who have shaped Joburg. Walking through the open-air gallery of Braam, Newtown, and the City Centre left us feeling inspired, and we couldn't recommend an Alive tour more: keep an eye on @joburg_artsalive on Instagram for the next one.
And if you're looking for some inspiration, or just need to slow down, here's what you should go see this week:
1. Maungo at Bag Factory Artists' Studios
Photo: Bag Factory Artist Studios.
Opening Thu, Feb 26: A group exhibition of the artists currently working at Bag Factory Artists' Studios, Maungo marks the start of the institution's 35-year anniversary. Bag Factory is one of the city's most celebrated artist studios, and its commitment to enabling the next generation of artists through residency programmes and workshops makes it an essential force in creating a more sustainable arts environment.
Featured artists are Gail Behrmann, Erla S. Haraldsdóttir, Sharlene Khan, Candice Kramer, LL Editions, Tshepiso Moropa, Kagiso Pat Mautloa, Richard "Specs" Ndimande, Levy Pooe, and Joe Turpin, with works by Bag Factory co-founder David Koloane accompanying the show.
2. African Refugia at Everard Read
Opening Thu, Feb 26: If you'd prefer an escape from the city, Paul Augustinus' impossibly life-like oil paintings in African Refugia at Everard Read are as good as a holiday. This exhibition is the result of a lifetime spent distilling the essence of the different landscapes of Africa. The works are opulent in their detail, and few artists capture the subtle interplay of light, land, and nature better than Augustinus. On show until Sat, Mar 21.
3. Fashion_The Image at Roger Ballen Centre for Photography
Opening on Sat, Feb 28: An exhibition we've been particularly excited for is Fashion_The Image at the Roger Ballen Centre for Photography – an ambitious survey of fashion photography’s evolution on the African continent. Curated by Sharon Armstrong, Aspasia Karras, and the African Fashion Research Institute, the exhibition explores how fashion imagery shapes identity, aesthetics, and visual culture. The show also extends into the adjoining Inside Out Centre for the Arts, where Utopian Lands reframes fashion photography through questions of land and ecology.
From what we've heard, it's going to be visually stunning and dense, with extensive public programming to deepen and broaden the experience. First up, a walkabout on Sat, Feb 28 at 09:00 with internationally renowned photographer Koto Bolofo. RSVP here.
4. Weekened wanderings
Pop-up on Sat, Feb 28: One of our favourite book stores in Joburg, Bridge Books, presents a pop-up exhibition of works by Bekezela Mabena, Fiver Locker, and Mpho Machata in The Atlas of Precolonial Africa. Get a coffee, browse the shelves, and reimagine the past through the artists' works.
Opening Sat, Feb 28 at 11:00: Jason Langa, Chevy Noir, and Khumo Ramaila track how memory, emotion, and history inscribe themselves on the human figure in Imprints of Presence at Lizamore at the Firestation.
Walkabout on Sat, Feb 28 at 12:30: Origins Centre hosts Erla S. Haraldsdóttir for a walkabout of Imagine Visionary Animals, offering deeper insight into the research and ideas behind the works.
More Joburg art highlights
SEE BEFORE THE END OF FEBUntil Fri, Feb 27 – With GAIA, Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts at Wits Art Museum showcases artists' books that reflect our place in the world and our responsibility towards it.
Until Fri, Feb 27 – Through contemporary artworks, archival material, and performance, Nkosi Sikelel’ iAzania at Museum Africa examines apartheid’s deep roots and long shadows, focusing on land, space, and resistance.
Until Sat, Feb 28 – In Residuals – A study in flesh, form and fracture at Asisebenze Art Gallery, Thokozani Mthiyane reflects on the social realities of Johannesburg's inner city with an unflinching look at the crisis of nyaope addiction.
Until Sat, Feb 28 – A group exhibition leaning into moments of transition, Winds of Change at Resource Gallery reflects on the personal and collective shifts that unsettle, challenge, and reshape us.
Until Sat, Feb 28 – Denzil's & Jo collaborate with Exhibition Through Music for In 9 months a child of love is born, a show that asks you to slow down and experience the beauty that comes from love made visible.
SEE BEFORE THE END OF MARCH
Until Fri, Mar 6 – Holding Isihawu at Artyli Gallery gathers eight contemporary African artists to look at how black history is an ongoing process made real through art.
Until Sat, Mar 7 – Portrait Shift sees Eric Duplan rework the language of portraiture at Gallery 2 with works that resist fixed readings.
Until Sat, Mar 7 – Goodman Gallery brings two special exhibitions by Guy Simpson and Hank Willis Thomas. Was Here sees Guy Simpson mapping the changes to Johannesburg since his youth, while Hank Willis Thomas probes memory, shared histories and connections with Forever Now.
Until mid-Mar – Icelandic artist Erla S. Haraldsdóttir creates portals that connect symbols and experiences across millennia at Origins Centre with Imagine Visionary Animals.
Until Fri, Mar 20 – Wits Art Museum revisits the radical legacy and lyrical abstractions of Bill Ainslie with Intersections: Bill Ainslie and the Johannesburg Art Foundation. Read our review.
Until Fri, Mar 20 – David Krut Gallery gets its 2026 programme going with two exhibitions that explore making, desire, and process. Untitled Excursion Series marks Blessing Ngobeni's first venture into intaglio printmaking and he translates his energetic, physical approach to drawing onto copper plates. Phumulani Ntuli looks at the surreal ways desire is shaped in the digital age with Wish List.
Until end March – Gallery MOMO's Summer Group Show is a dynamic exhibition across modern and contemporary art featuring Tega Tafadzwa, Vivien Kohler, Dumile Feni, Velaphi Mzimba, and others.
Until end March – Palimpsest at Lizamore on Keyes brings together photographer Michael Meyersfeld and painter-musician Stompie Selibe in a dynamic meeting of practices alongside new works by Lien Botha, Nellien Brewer, and Jacki McInnes.
Until end March – Below the Surface at the gallery is a group exhibition across print and mixed media where marks become shifting traces of touch, movement, and memory.
SEE BEFORE THE END OF APRIL
Until Fri, Apr 10 – FADA Gallery and the ARAK Collection collaborate for two exhibitions stemming from the ARAK Curatorial Fellowship.
In After Material curator Max Diallo Jakobsen examines how artists work with materials already loaded with social, political, and economic histories treating matter as both medium and archive.
And in There Are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of), Soukaina Aboulaoula approaches abstraction as a language that carries histories, memories, psychic states, and cosmologies.
Until Sun, Apr 12 – What happens when the stewards are gone? In Modiši wa go botega, Setlamorago Mashilo takes the figure of the shepherd at Constitution Hill and asks hard questions about leadership, care, and responsibility in our communities.
Until Thu, Apr 30 – One and the Many brings leading South African contemporary artists into dialogue with the collections at Javett-UP in a fascinating examination of the old and the new that "aims to open up different possibilities for reading images and artwork".
SEE BEFORE THE END OF JULY
Until Fri, Jul 31 – A brand-new art space, A42 House opens its doors with Grounded, a co-created exhibition shaped by voices in Johannesburg reflecting on home, belonging, and place. Keep an eye on A42 House's Instagram for talks, workshops, and other pop-up events.
Ongoing – NIROX Sculpture Park and the Villa-Legodi Centre for Sculpture place works by Edoardo Villa alongside other South African sculptors to explore the legacy of the artist with Villa+ the next generation.
Save the date
Opening Thu, Mar 5 – Resource Gallery presents Emancipation of Mental Slavery, a group show that celebrates those that reject limiting beliefs, narratives and boundaries to imagine anew.Opening Sat, Mar 7 at 11:00 – Candice Berman Gallery at 223 Creative Hub brings new work from Shana Ellappa and Restone Maambo. Shana Ellappa treats the sugarcane fields of Kwa-Zulu Natal as living archives of indentured labour in The Field as Witness. And in Prowess, Restone Maambo's paintings highlight the power of endurance and self-possession.
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