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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.
Creative happenings at Keyes Art Night
Thu, May 8 from 17:00 – At this month's edition of Keyes Art Night at the vibrant Keyes Art Mile, the group show Motion and Expression: The Space In Between in collaboration with Crispy Skateboards continues its run at Origin Art. For budding art collectors, Unlocking Your Collection is a treasure trove of budget-friendly masterpieces. And in the Atrium of the Trumpet building, you can join Sizwe Khoza on his journey with the solo, The People and I, In Contemplation. Find the full lineup here.
Exhibition openings (Thu, May 8 – Thu, May 15)
Opening Fri, May 9 – The Meaning of Home at The Old Kitchen (on the University of Johannesburg's Bunting Road campus) 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 result is heartfelt and deeply evocative, fostering a universal dialogue about the role of art in healing, connection, and social change.
Opening Sat, May 10 at 12:00 – Featuring Blessing Blaai, Sizani Baloyi, and Courtney Hodgson (also known as Umlungu), In the Quiet of Colour explores what lies beyond the rose-tinted glasses of our everyday experience. Opening at Gallery 21 in Transwerke at Constitution Hill, the featured paintings use the duality of colour as a starting point to "question how vibrant aesthetics can mask, mediate, or even manipulate our perception of truth." The artists' aim is to initiate a conversation between the viewer and the truth, using painting as an intermediary – "a therapeutic voice in the background guiding us towards ourselves...". The exhibition opening includes a live interview series with the artists.
Opening Mon, May 12 – A chance to see museum-quality art, Strauss & Co's pre-auction exhibition opens at their Houghton showroom before their flagship Modern Contemporary Art Sale on Tue, May 27. Included in the exhibition is a classic known to many, artist Vladimir Tretchikoff's Lady of the Orient. Once considered "the King of Kitsch" by critics, Tretchikoff's work has become canon in the South African art world. (Lady of the Orient, which is expected to draw five to seven million on auction, will travel to RMB Latitudes at Shepstone Gardens from Fri, May 23 – Sun, May 25.)
Closing soon and worth your while
Until Fri, May 9 – Mauritius-based artist Salim Currimjee shows at Stevenson with the solo, Tula. The title is translated from Sanskrit as "balance", referring to the balance Currimjee has struck between his architectural and artistic practices. "This lifelong concern with seeking balance endeavours to blur differences between disciplines and focus on queries of colour, texture, composition, and history. As in his architectural practice, Currimjee’s artworks configure space as they relate to people to create an embodied reaction to spatial planes and realms," reads the exhibition text.
Photo: Nina Lieska for Stevenson.
Until Fri, May 9 – Think you know everything about paper? Get ready to rethink this medium and its myriad art applications at a fascinating showcase at Wits Art Museum's (WAM) Jack Ginsberg Centre for the Book Arts. Divided into four sections, the Paper exhibition explores book art and the art of paper-making from various perspectives. From ancient scrolls to water-marking, folding, cutting, and marbling, here you will find beautiful pop-up books, some of the finest Japanese paper, William Kentridge's Sheets of Evidence, and a rare collection of handmade books that were crafted by the artists from beginning to end.
Until Sat, May 10 – Madi, Madi is a solo by provocative artist Lady Skollie at Everard Read Gallery – taking its name from the Setswana word that means both 'money' and 'blood'. "The whole show is about money because that’s literally what everything is about," says Skollie. "As South Africans, I feel like we are reaching a point where, irrespective of race, we are all one cent away from things falling apart. There’s a sense of impending doom, but also the freedom you feel when you do have cash."
More art highlights
Until Fri, May 23 – Head to The Melrose Gallery in Melrose Arch for the opening of Hlukanisa, uHlanganise – a conversation between renowned artist Dr Esther Mahlangu and contemporary artists Charity Vilakazi, Tinyiko Makwakwa, Nikiwe Dlova, Puleng Mongale, and Nwabisa Ntlokwana. The title of the exhibition translates to "take apart (deconstruct) in order to reconstruct/create anew." The artists on show explore the intersection between language, lineage, and materiality, and the role of personal and collective histories in memory.
Photo: The Melrose Gallery.
Until Thu, May 29 – Goodman Gallery spotlights influential masters from the African continent during the 20th century in the group exhibition Urban Entanglements: How Art Reflects Citymaking. Spanning four decades, the work of artists David Koloane (1938–2019), Kagiso ‘Pat’ Mautloa, and Sam Nhlengethwa documents, challenges, and reimagines the shifting landscape of Joburg in a collection of drawings, paintings, and charcoal works.
Until Fri, May 30 – A legacy exhibition at Strauss & Co's Houghton showroom features the work of South African artists Gerard Sekoto and Lena Hugo. "The aim of the exhibition is to present, through a selection of paintings by Sekoto, the nature of work and the world workers created for themselves in the first half of the 20th century, juxtaposed with Hugo’s depictions of workers in the 21st century," says senior art specialist and head curator Wilhelm van Rensburg. Working Life in South Africa includes Sekoto's depictions of labourers of all types, such as domestic workers, washerwomen, brick-makers, coal merchants, miners, barbers, and shopkeepers. Shown alongside are Hugo's pastel drawings of heavy machinery operators.
Photo: Strauss & Co.
Opening Sun, Jun 1 – For a "gentle simmer of memory, resistance, and invention", head to Studio C3 at Victoria Yards for Flood House Studios and Adilson de Oliveira's collaborative exhibition, How to Make Carnation Soup. Exploring the narratives surrounding the Portuguese Carnation Revolution and the painful histories of former colonies, they use video, holograms, and screen printing to bring to life a conversation between history, art, and different types of media. In this exhibition, digital tools are seen "not as gimmick, but as language: not as mimicry, but as conjuring", and are used in conjunction with poetry to weave together longing, bitterness, and the occasional witticism.
Until Thu, Jun 5 – A diverse, all-female exhibition of paintings and drawings, Planting Seeds at the gallery at 44 Stanley explores the balance between external forces and inner growth through evocative imagery, loosely connected by the theme of space. From natural spaces and landscapes to interiorscapes, this show speaks to growth, connection, and transformation. Featuring work by Laurinda Belcher, Clana, Daniella Mooney, Thanduxolo Nombali Phakathi, Dayna-Gay Tate, and Lily Waterkeyn.
Until Fri, Jun 6 – Over 40 artists explore the skateboard deck as their canvas in the group exhibition, Motion and Expression: The Space In Between, at Origin Art at Keyes Art Mile. The gallery worked with Crispy Skateboards to bring this unusual show to fruition; a Joburg-based father and sons company known for bespoke decks and cool artist collabs. "Skateboarding is a language of motion – an act of balance, defiance, and improvisation. It is a culture built on self-expression, where style is everything, and creativity flourishes in the most unexpected spaces," reads the exhibition statement. Motion and Expression features wide-ranging artistic voices, styles, and mediums, from graffiti to mixed media, fine art, and graphic design.
Until Sun, Jun 22 – Head to 223 Jan Smuts Creative Hub for an exciting new exhibition opening. Hosted at Berman Contemporary, two of the artists in the gallery's stable come together for Strand by Strand. In this exhibition, Hazel Mphande and Kamogelo Machaba explore the history of black hair and the politics and tension surrounding it. Using a variety of media, they bring to life the world of black women and the connections between cultural and personal identity.
Until end Jun 2025 – If you're looking for something fun, we have just the thing: Playground by artist Motelseven7 at Grayscale Gallery in Braamfontein. Cheeky and colourful, this solo is a celebration of the ethos of graffiti and street art that Grayscale is famous for. Playground is exactly what its name promises: a playground created by the artist for visitors to join.
Until end Jul 2025 – What do you get following an intense artistic engagement with a scientific subject – the 2.5-million-year-old Taung skull, which was discovered in 1924? Joni Brenner's solo exhibition at Origins Centre, Impact, which encapsulates her long-term creative reckoning with the child's skull, broadly explores themes of "fragility and survival, destruction and creation, uncertainty, loss, pressure, and chance". Unusual, poignant, and thought-provoking are a few more words that come to mind when describing Brenner's response to this ancient piece of the story of human evolution.
Until Sun, Sep 28 – An installation series at Museum Africa, Fashion Accounts reimagines how we collect, archive, and create memories through fashion objects. Curated by fashion designers and curators Wanda Lephoto, Erica de Greef, and Alison Moloney, it also considers the absence of black South African fashion histories in traditional museum collections. Says Lephoto, "It is in the gaps, the absences, the fragments that we need to look to find ourselves when our stories are not acknowledged in the record."
Save the date
Opening Thu, May 15 – We Turned Off the Road is a solo exhibition at Everard Read by Joburg-based artist Neill Wright. By layering a variety of techniques such as painting, sanding, and stencilling, he builds imaginary, dreamlike landscapes that explore the notion of escapism. Central to Wright's work is colour: "I’m drawn to bright, discordant, electric palettes. They resonate. Everyone connects with colour", he says.Opening Sat, May 17 – In celebration of South Africa's abundant and unique flora, the Botanical Artists Association of Southern Africa is hosting an exhibition at the exquisitely designed heritage building, Villa Arcadia. A collaboration between artists from all over the world, the exhibition tells the story of the plants that clothe, heal, feed, house, and shape our lives.
Fri, May 23 – Sun, May 25 – A destination event, RMB Latitudes art fair returns to the whimsical Shepstone Gardens in Mountain View. The lavish, terraced gardens and intricate buildings provide a fabulous backdrop for art, while the property’s many layers make visiting feel like being on a treasure hunt. This three-day event features art fair booths from leading galleries and unique exhibition spaces designed by curators and artists. Delicious food stalls, bespoke treats, local wines, and fashion complete the offering. Judging by how quickly tickets sold out last year, you’ll want to snap yours up soon to avoid disappointment. Book here.
Opening Sat, May 31 – In 2024, Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation (JCAF) explored how we interact with the natural world in their Ecospheres exhibition. Curating one museum-quality exhibition a year, their upcoming offering explores built spaces as a continuation of the three-part Worldmaking series. Entitled Structures, this exhibition combines research, technology, and art to explore how we navigate and use space. Comprising a trilogy of exhibitions, Structures will be accompanied by talks, walkabouts, publications, and more episodes of JCAF's podcast series, Knowledge Talks.
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