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.
Johannesburg art picks of the week (Thu, May 14 – Thu, May 21, 2026)
It's a week of openings that earn your attention, and the best part is they're spread out enough that you can catch them all. Two shows land at Everard Read Gallery on Thursday, then on the weekend Melrose Arch and the Cradle of Humankind are where you will want to be. By Tuesday, Wits Art Museum opens what may be the most important exhibition of the month. And make sure to make some time to view the lots on sale for Strauss & Co's May auctions.1. Two solos at Everard Read Johannesburg
Thu, May 14: Jeanne Hoffman brings a body of work rooted in collage and the act of tending to Everard Read Gallery. Drawing on British poet Roger Robinson's idea of a "portable paradise", Gardening Fragments considers what is carried and returned to when we are under pressure through holding and reconfiguring geographical, political and psychological landscapes over time. Meaning accumulates slowly here.
Opening the same evening next door, Nicola Bailey's Between Dog and Wolf / Entre Chien et Loup is a tender, searching body of work about the consciousness of animals and what observing them reveals about our own. Bailey draws her figures, human and canine alike, in loose charcoal, communing with her subjects in the process. What does the dog dream? The question, she shows us, is also about us.
2. I Left Something for You on the Table at The Melrose Gallery
Sat, May 16: Curated by Nthabiseng Mofokeng, this group exhibition at The Melrose Gallery approaches inheritance as something constantly in motion that we carry forward through gesture, image, land and form. Falida Nkomo, Masindi Nafisa Mbolekwa, Swaline Mkhonto, Silindokuhle Shandu and Njabulo Hlophe bring together painting, printmaking, collage and oil pastel. The table, as site of ritual and memory, holds it all together.
3. Hydraulics at NIROX
Sun, May 17 at 14:00 – 17:00: Few artists capture water as uniquely as Adele van Heerden, who opens her solo exhibition in the Cool Room Complex at NIROX Sculpture Park. Developed during a residency at the foundation from April through to the end of May. Hydraulics traces the movement of water above and below the Earth's surface across painting, sound and video. RSVP to info@niroxarts.com.
4. 1976 at 50 and Wits 76 at Wits Art Museum
Tue, May 19 at 18:00: With June 16 marking 50 years since the Soweto Uprising, the Wits Art Museum in Braamfontein opens a necessary double bill to mark the anniversary. Kevin Harris's film Silent Witness draws on decades of archival footage and interviews with people who were there – among them photojournalist Peter Magubane, student leader Murphy Morobe and Hector Pietersen's mother, Dorothy Molefi. Alongside it, cinematographer Paul Laufer's photographic essay Wits 76 documents both the schools of Soweto in the weeks before the uprising and the student protests that followed in Braamfontein. Together they add new layers to a story South Africa is still reckoning with. The opening includes short addresses by both filmmakers and Wits Emeritus Professor Yunus Ballim.
5. Queer African Art at Goethe-Institut Johannesburg
Thu, May 21 at 16:00 – 22:00: Timed to mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, the Goethe-Institut presents a pan-African group exhibition drawn from an open call that received over 250 submissions from 22 countries. Curated by Renaldo Schwarp, the show features artists from Mauritius, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia in a broad and ambitious look at queer voices from the continent.More Joburg art highlights
SEE BEFORE THE END OF MAYUntil Sat, May 30 – Goodman Gallery presents Kate Gottgens' Her Own Myth, the artist's first show with the gallery, assembling female figures drawn from myth, fairytale and folklore on canvases that blur recognition and invention.
Until Sun, May 31 – Fashion_The Image at Roger Ballen Centre for Photography traces the evolution of fashion photography in South Africa and its relationship to identity, authorship and global visual culture.
SEE BEFORE THE END OF JUNE
Until Fri, Jun 5: Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts at Wits Art Museum presents Thoughtforms: The Page as a Liminal Field, tracing the book as a site of active thinking from 15th-century incunabula to contemporary experiments in redaction and annotation.
Until Sat, Jun 13 – Where Time Has Gathered is a special exhibition at Lizamore on Keyes. Drawn from gallerist and curator Teresa Lizamore's personal collection, the exhibition reflects on 35 years of relationships and moments in the art world.
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.
SEE BEFORE THE END OF OCTOBER
Until Sat, Oct 31: With the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) gearing up for its refurbishment, Homecoming brings significant pieces from its collection to Standard Bank Gallery. Curated by Khwezi Gule and Dr Same Mdluli, the show creates a fascinating friction between European classical masters and seminal African works. For more thoughts on Homecoming and Johannesburg Art Gallery, read our articles here and here.
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
May 22 – May 24 – The exquisite Shepstone Gardens plays host to RMB Latitudes Art Fair with the theme Oasis for 2026, featuring a special international focus on contemporary Nigerian art in collaboration with Yenwa Gallery. Get your tickets here.
May 23 – May 24 – Join Strauss & Co in Houghton for specialist-led weekend walkabouts of their May auction series, with works from South African modernist masters spanning JH Pierneef to George Pemba.
Sep 4 – Sep 6 – FNB Art Joburg, the longest-running art fair in Africa, transforms the Sandton Convention Centre with curated sections, large-scale installations and more.
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