From iconic public artworks (discover a few of our favourites), interesting street art, 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 the ever-changing array on offer, with a curated selection of solo and group shows, artist-led walkabouts, workshops, guided tours, and other art-related events worth your while.
For a full guide to what’s on in Joburg, explore our events calendar. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter published every Thursday morning. For extra daily updates, follow our Instagram page.
First Thursdays and exhibition openings
Thu, Oct 2 from 17:00 – For the October edition of Keyes Art Night at Keyes Art Mile, you can expect Lehlogonolo Masoabi's layered works in the Atrium followed by the incredible group exhibition, Thorned at Gallery 1. Once you've been inspired, head to the Make Station to create your own artwork. And as always, Keyes delivers when it comes to food and drinks with a variety of restaurants offering delicious meals, such as Kanpai and Marble, as well as Pantry for yummy soft serve. When all is seen and done, round the night off at MIX Cocktail Bar with some beats and drinks.
Opening Sat, Oct 4 at 11:00 – Bench Play at David Krut's The Blue House gallery brings together works created by performance and visual artist Oupa Sibeko during his residency at the David Krut Workshop. Taking the concrete bench and metal emblem outside of the workshop as his inspiration, Bench Play is Sibeko’s homage to the David Krut Workshop as a space of collaboration, creation, and play.
Opening Sat, Oct 4 at 15:00 – The group exhibition Not So Everyday at Kim Sacks Gallery brings a range of works from historical African artefacts to contemporary ceramics and art. By situating them together, the exhibition aims to bridge the gap between what is considered art versus craft and highlight the thread connecting the past and the present.
Opening Thu, Oct 9 – With Communion, Gallery Momo brings together three bodies of work by photographer Andrew Tshabangu. Created across different geographies, Mozambique and southern Africa, France, and New York, the images meditate on the rituals and forces that give and sustain life. Tshabangu's images carry a stillness and, as he invites us into his photographs, we are reminded of the expansive power of ordinary acts of sharing and care and the immense significance of daily acts of labour and living.
Last chance to see
Until Thu, Oct 2 – At 44 Stanley for the gallery's exhibition Flatland: Drawing Depth. Flatland brings artists and printing studios together who transform flat images into emotive and immersive spaces, exploring the question: "How can we find depth in simplicity, and space in flatness?". Featuring works by 50ty/50ty Prints, The Artists' Press, Roxy Kaczmarek, Io Makandal, Thobile ‘Sana King’ Mavuso, Thanduxolo Nombali Phakathi, and Fiona Pole.
Until Sat, Oct 4 – TOOR|BOS at Gallery 2 is one of those exhibitions that needs to be seen in person. Curated by Dineke Orton, head curator at UJ Art Gallery, the project brings together leading creative voices to merge visual art, poetry, music, and VR (virtual reality) into an immersive artistic journey. Featuring artists Willem Boshoff and Jaco van Schalkwyk, poets Quaz Roodt and Bibi Slippers, VR specialist Dr Herman Myburgh, and composer Dr Jaco Meyer.
More art highlights
Until Thu, Oct 16 – The Meaning of Home at Origins Centre is a showcase of works created in collaboration by art therapist Kate Shand and ceramic artist Nina Shand with children from the educational project Three2Six. Over 70 raku-fired porcelain vessels are shown alongside tactile clay sculptures by migrant children, collectively exploring home as a place of memory and belonging. The latest run of the exhibition includes two new additions: Leaving No Child Behind, a powerful photo series by Three2Six & Alliance Française, and Doll’s Building and City Project, a Victorian doll’s house, transformed into a South African context by Windybrow Arts Centre.
Until Fri, Oct 17 – The Roger Ballen Centre for Photography's debut exhibition PSYCHOPOMP!. Curated by Berlin-based artist Boris Eldagsen, the exhibition explores the role of AI images as a mirror to the subconscious mind. Bringing together over 20 artists who use AI as a tool "to interrogate their fears, their shame, and their psychic leftovers", the exhibition explores the new frontiers of creativity, which technology is rapidly disrupting. Admission is R50.
Until Fri, Oct 17 – Asisebenze Art Gallery is an exquisite new gallery space in Town. Already a vibrant home for artists in the inner-city, Asisebenze Art Atelier's gallery represents the next step in holding space for more creative voices to shine. Check out their group exhibition Art in Motion for a look at the varied and talented voices they represent.
Until Fri, Oct 17 – FADA Gallery brings together researchers and artists in the fields of architecture, visual art, art therapy, fashion, industrial design, and microbiology for their exhibition IMPACT is a verb. Curated by FADA Gallery curator Farieda Nazier, the exhibition brings together researchers who engage with art through theory and critical discourse, and explores how traditional artistic practice can be extended beyond its limitations.
Photo: FADA Gallery.
Until Sat, Oct 25 – Neo Matloga brings new paintings to Stevenson Gallery for his solo exhibition Tomorrow is Another Day. In Tomorrow is Another Day, Matloga works across painting, collage and monotypes to weave together moments of daily life between Johannesburg and his home in Mamaila. The quiet moments that he captures emphasise stillness, and the artist says of making works for the exhibition, "where photography captures a moment, painting chases it. I try to hold that breath a little longer, painting as if the camera were embedded in the pulse of my hand."
Until Thu, Oct 30 – Notes in Flight, Olivia Pintér's first solo with David Krut Projects at The Blue House. Pintér's works capture feelings and moods from places and moments, with her abstraction being a way to articulate "sensations that are felt but not fully understood." The exhibition features new paintings as well as monotypes made in collaboration with printer Roxy Kaczmarek.
Until Fri, Oct 31 – South African icons Willie Bester and Pitika Ntuli at the Melrose Gallery with Junkyard Dogs, an exhibition curated by Tumelo Tumi Moloi and Ashraf Jamal. A powerful confrontation with legacy, reclamation, and survival, the exhibition brings fresh perspectives from two stalwarts of art in South Africa.
Photo: Melrose Gallery.
Until Fri, Oct 31 – Goodman Gallery brings the work of Ibrahim Mahama, Maxwell Alexandre, and Pélagie Gbaguidi together for the exhibition Carriers. Across painting, installation, photography, and assemblage, the artists' practices bear witness to the marks history leaves on people, places, and memory.
Until end October – Ada-Ruth Kellow's solo The Braai Master at Lizamore at The Firestation, Rosebank is perfectly timed for the change in season. As Kellow turns her attention to a familiar ritual in South Africa, she presents the braai as a mirror of society and reveals the social and power dynamics at play.
Until end October – Keyes Art Mile's Gallery 1 space 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 Jackson Hlungwani transform their pain through their art.
Until Sat, Nov 1 – Artist Serge Nitegeka returns to his alma mater for his first solo in Johannesburg, Black Subjects at Wits Art Museum. Working across mediums from painting to film, the undoubted highlight is a large-scale and walkable sculpture that takes over part of the gallery.
Until Sat, Nov 1 – Gerhard Marx's energetic works come to Everard Read for his exhibition Landscape Would Be the Wrong Word. Working with maps, plant matter, and bronze casts, Marx opens new spatial possibilities and meaning, saying, "Instead of making a landscape, I’m making a place."
Until Sun, Nov 2 – Discover the Sasol New Signatures 2025 winning artist, finalists, and shortlisted artworks in a spectacular group showcase at the Pretoria Art Museum. With more than 100 works selected from across the country, this is the best way to get a glimpse into the future of South African contemporary art. Alongside, Miné Kleynhans, winner of Sasol New Signatures 2024, presents her solo Augury After Autogogues. Kleynhans uses interactive sculptural works to explore mysticism and truth in a time where we are often overburdened with information.
Until Sat, Nov 15 – Structures forms the second part of Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation's Worldmaking series. The exhibition sees the featured artists, architects, and the team at JCAF use research, technology, and art to explore the relationship between humans and the built environment. Comprising a trilogy of exhibitions, Structures will be accompanied by talks, walkabouts, publications, and more episodes of JCAF's podcast series, Knowledge Talks. Book a guided walkabout here.
Art Foundation. Photo: Johannesburg In Your Pocket.
Until Sat, Nov 22 – Wits Art Museum brings a deeper look at how comic books are created with Rainbow Nation Comics' exhibition YOUNG NELSON: Renewal/Rejuvenation. The exhibition brings together digital prints, archival photographs from Wits Art Museum's collection, sketches and storyboards from The Young Nelson, New Beginnings, New Stories, New Heroes Anthology, an animation trailer, and original music, providing a new way to engage with the histories and stories of South Africa.
Until end November – Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts at Wits Art Museum bring another exhibition exploring artist 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 end November – Gallery MOMO's latest group exhibition brings together a collection of powerful voices in contemporary and modern art featuring artists Blessing Blaai, Dumile Feni, Eli Kobeli, Leonard Matsoso, Phoka Nyokong, Nik Cho, Pedro Trueba Ramirez and Vivien Kohler.
Until early 2026 – Johannesburg Art Gallery, in collaboration with First Floor Gallery Harare, present Sugar Coats – Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude’s first solo exhibition at the museum, following his award of the 2024 FNB Art Prize. In Sugar Coats, Nyaude tackles the disempowerment of the youth, bringing into play the vestiges of colonialism which still entrap Zimbabwe, skewed systems of justice, and a culture of consumerism.
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 Villa-Legodi Centre for Sculpture's exhibition 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".
Save the date
Sat, Oct 11 from 12:00 – 20:00 – 223 Jan Smuts Creative Hub and Candice Berman Gallery collaborate with Slow Wine Co. and Slow Gold wine distributors to bring the second edition of their Klink Art Wine Experience. With new exhibitions, artist activations, wine tastings, live music, workshops, and delicious food, make sure to get your ticket before they sell out!Wed, Nov 26 – Sun, Nov 30 – Centre for the Less Good Idea will launch Season 11 of their performances and works in November. A place of exploration and experimentation, you can expect to see some of the most moving, varied, and novel works and performances that cut across disciplines.
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