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 .
Thursday night plans and open bookings
Opening Sat, May 31 – Structures forms the second part of Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation's Worldmaking series. The exhibition sees the featured artists and team at JCAF use research, technology, and art to explore the relations 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 . Bookings are now open for guided walkabouts; RSVP here .
Thu, Jun 5 from 17:00 – Keep your Thursday night open for Keyes Art Night at Keyes Art Mile . Always a busy affair, you can expect exhibitions, workshops, music, and more. This month, it’s your last chance to see the group show Motion and Expression: The Space In Between at Origin Art and Sizwe Khoza’s solo The People and I, In Contemplation in the Atrium . Find the full lineup here .
Last chance to see
Photo: Strauss & Co.
Until 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 Wed, Jun 4 – 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.
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 Thu, Jun 5 – Alexander Appolis’ narrative exhibition Neo-Arcadian Tale: BLACK Pan in South Africa’s Pastoral Romance explores haunted spaces, memories and scars in post-Apartheid South Africa. Wits Art Museum plays host to Appolis’ imagined landscapes which, whether through painting, installation, sculpture and drawing, invite us to reflect on the fantasies that shape South African social life.
More art highlights
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 8 – In the Atrium of Keyes Art Mile's Trumpet building, you can see Sizwe Khoza's solo, The People and I, In Contemplation. Inspired by a combination of his experience in black portraiture, personal photographs, and his time living in Mozambique and South Africa, Khoza uses a collection of 13 works to explore the ups and downs as he left and returned to the city to open his own studio, with the exhibition being a "journey of introspection, memory, and emotional depth".
Until Thu, Jun 19 – Guns and Rain presents Ayobola Kekere-Ekun's Winners Take All, a follow-up on her previous exhibition High Stakes. Kekere-Ekun’s glamorous card-playing characters represent those who transform election cycles into an extended sequence of high-stakes poker games; her searing critique of the performative nature of democracy couldn't be more timely.
Until Sat, Jun 21 – Get lost in the intersections of the conscious and unconscious with Megan Shapiro, The Creatory's current artist-in-residence. Shapiro brings several completed works along with her tools to make the space part studio, part exhibition, and her 3D pen series is truly one-of-a-kind. Visit her at The Creatory at 223 Creative Hub to see how she brings her 3D pen sculptures to life.
