Keyes Art Night captures and distils the creative pulse of Joburg for an evening that seamlessly blends art, music, and conviviality. The precinct’s galleries and restaurants open their doors for a night of exploration and energy. Whether you're a seasoned art enthusiast, a curious first-timer, or simply someone who appreciates good food, cold drinks, and the buzz of a city doing what it does best, Keyes Art Night delivers every time.
For March, you'll notice a vast excavation has opened up where the next phase of the Keyes precinct is taking shape. A physical reminder that this city is never finished, only being rewritten, this month's Keyes Art Night reflects on how the city is constructed and imagined. You can expect panoramic maps the size of a wall, a hands-on Maker's Space where you'll be able to map your own Joburg, Aspire Art's Collector's Edition showcase, and exhibitions in Gallery 1, BKhz, and Lizamore on Keyes.
And as always, Keyes excels when it comes to food and drinks with a variety of restaurants offering meals, from The Prawnery, Momo Kuro, and Kanpai, to Marble, and BGR, while Pantry by Marble serves yummy soft serve. When all is seen and done, round the night off at MIX Cocktail Bar with cool beats and drinks.
Material reflections in Gallery 1
Marking the breaking of ground for the Keyes Art Mile 2.0 expansion, Groundwork reflects on the materials that shape both art and the built environment. Timed to mark the ground-breaking of the much-anticipated Keyes Art Mile 2.0 expansion, Groundwork shifts the way you look at the materials underpinning the world around us. Stone, dust, carbon, concrete – the raw materials of Joburg's built world – are put under the artistic microscope in an exhibition that examines the geological matter and human labour that hold this city together. It's a fascinating look at how environments are formed materially, culturally and imaginatively.
Private sales showcase at Aspire Art
For those looking to add something truly special to their walls, or just wanting to see some of the best modern art South Africa has to offer, Aspire Art's Collector’s Edition is now open for viewing. The presentation brings together works hand-selected by specialists at Aspire Art, and the works on show represent exactly the kind of considered, significant pieces that don't often surface in public.
Maps and making in The Atrium
In From Waterfall to Soweto, Titus Matiyane presents a sweeping panoramic map of Gauteng, tracing the urban continuum across highways, housing, railways, and infrastructure. Working from an aerial perspective, Matiyane’s dense, immersive compositions reveal the hidden systems that connect the city, shaped by movement, labour, and ambition. Inviting slow looking, the work situates viewers within a vast, interconnected urban landscape and asks them to consider their place within its unfolding geography.
Also in The Atrium is the ever-popular Makers' Table, one of the corners where we always end up having the most fun, where you can imprint your own mark on the night's creative spirit by making something yourself. This month's Makers' Table responds directly to Joburg's shifting surfaces. Drawing a thread between Groundworks in Gallery 1, Titus Matiyane's sweeping map-based works, and the churned-up construction site just outside, the activation invites visitors to do something simple but quietly radical: reflect on how Johannesburg is mapped, remembered, and imagined.
In association with Johannesburg In Your Pocket, the table will be stocked with discarded Joburg map-book pages, drawing materials, and collage elements, some of which come from our own archives of guides and maps. Draw on them, annotate them, tear them apart or reassemble them, to imprint your own stories on the geography of Joburg. Works created on the night will be assembled to form an evolving portrait of the city. Whether you're a professional artist or part-time doodler, all skill levels are welcome. And before you leave, make sure to scan the QR code at the table to meet Jo, our AI-powered city companion.
Layers of visuals and sound at Lizamore on Keyes
Palimpsest brings together a new collaborative body of work by Michael Meyersfeld and Stompie Selibe, where layering, mark-making, and visual transformation unfold through a shared, dialogic process. The exhibition extends across the gallery with solo presentations by Lien Botha, Nellien Brewer, and Jacki McInnes, each occupying a distinct space and perspective. Referencing the idea of something reused yet still bearing traces of the past, Palimpsest explores how materials, sounds, and gestures overlap, unsettle, and reveal new ways of seeing and sensing.
Retrospective at BKhz
Lunga Ntila quickly made her mark as one of the most exciting new voices in South African art with her portraits that mixed photography and collage. As the gallery that hosted her first solo exhibition, it is fitting that BKhz should host a retrospective of Ntila's works. For Ntila, her layered compositions were about more than aesthetics, they're about revelation: “I would like for my work to feel like an epiphany, a sudden realisation of something. Finally connecting the dots. That last piece of the puzzle that you couldn’t find that was always underneath the couch that you sit on every day. That relief of finally knowing something.” This is one we're particularly excited for.
Pause for a drink and a meal
While art is front and centre at Keyes Art Night, you certainly won't be leaving hungry, given all that Keyes has to offer on the dining front. Enjoy beautifully crafted sushi at the Japanese-fusion restaurant Kanpai or giant tiger prawns on the hibachi grill at The Prawnery. Book via Dineplan. Freshly Ground is great for a casual bite – a favourite is the creamy chicken tikka masala pasta. Add appetising Asian street food to the line-up at Momo Kuro on the top floor of the Trumpet Building, or try the ramen at Momo's street-level store. Burger and fries more your style? Keep it easy at BGR. Unwind with sunset drinks at Marble (also in the swanky Trumpet Building), and if soft serve is your thing, head down the parking lot stairs to Pantry by Marble.
Sip and spin at MIX Cocktail Bar
To round off the evening, head to MIX Cocktail Bar, where a dynamic line-up of DJs will provide the soundtrack to an evening of artful celebration. With its lively atmosphere, Mix remains one of the city’s most popular post-gallery destinations.
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