Keyes Art Mile

19 Keyes Ave, Rosebank , Rosebank & The Parks 16 Aug 2018
created 26 Aug 2016

Keyes Art Mile

Mix Cocktail Bar

TMRW Gallery

Milk Bar, Keyes Art Mile

Smac Gallery at Keyes Art Mile

Within walking distance of the malls of Rosebank, at the corner of Jan Smuts and Jellicoe Avenues, is the start of Keyes Art Mile, an exciting development that has revitalised a formerly quiet street and created an art and design hub for the city. The first phase of Keyes Art Mile is the Trumpet building. An impressive contemporary space focused around local art and design galleries and showrooms, the building's vast atrium is curated as a gallery space. Upstairs there's a cluster of slick restaurants and bars, while chic design stores and cafés open out onto a street flanked by wild olive trees.

Art and design

Neighbouring the Trumpet building, at the landmark Circa and Everard Read gallery impressive temporary exhibitions by leading South African artists await. Meanwhile inside the Trumpet building you'll find the futuristic TMRW Gallery (The Mixed Reality Workshop) where you can view contemporary art in a whole new light with interactive augmented reality and virtual reality exhibits that range from 'digital painting' to immersive VR films and SMAC Gallery where the focus is on edgy contemporary fine art, installation and photography exhibitions.

Fashion and design are also a big attraction with stores like Shelflife, who specialise in limited edition, rare and exclusive collectable sneakers by a range of cult brands and South African luxury accessories brand Okapi. For cutting edge interior design there's South African design store Anatomy and the eye-catching True Design which showcases iconic designs by brands like Kartell and Cassina, an Italian brand defined by its dedication to producing timeless modern classics by modernist masters such as Le Corbusier.

Drinking and dining

On any given day the rhombus-shaped Trumpet building is a busy space with a cool African-retro styled pavement café-bar Milk Bar, an American burger bar BGR and the ultra-stylish rooftop Marble grill restaurant. Mesh Club, a sexy members- only club also has a super-stylish cocktail bar, Mix, which is open to the public. A gorgeous artistic space filled with an impressive collection of contemporary art, Mix also offers superb views over the suburbs and is a fabulous place to enjoy sundowners.

Events at Keyes Art Mile

Once the humdrum headquarters of a major petrol company Keyes Art Mile is now one of the hottest spots in Joburg, and attracts around 2000 people on the first Thursday of every month to its First Thursdays street parties where food trucks and pop-up bars are set up in the street, live bands perform and the art galleries host free events. Other highlights of the Keyes Art Mile monthly calendar include The Pantry Market on the last Saturday of the month and Art & Design Saturdays on the 2nd Saturday of every month. Each Art & Design Saturday is held under a different theme (previous editions have included Masters of Modernism, Tech meets Art and African Menswear) and the day is filled with a busy programme of artist walkabouts, pop-up exhibitions, live performances and film screenings.