If you’re looking for inspiring art exhibitions in Johannesburg, the city offers an extraordinary lineup of both emerging and established talent across diverse mediums. Scroll to see our top picks.

A Secret Third Thing

Reflective of the history of its locale, A Secret Third Thing is an excavation and a tenuous mining undergone with no clear endpoint in sight.

The secrecy the exhibition brings to question is not some retrievable piece of information, but the reckoning with a fidgety, sometimes exciting, sometimes scary and always dynamic undercurrent. This undercurrent is the haunting of a city that refuses to be continuously taken from with no recourse or consequence. 

The city refuses a position of docility. The apartment guests find themselves in is stripped of any of those homely identifying marks but holds echoes of the city, with music from the street below making its way to the fifth floor and the sound of people going about their lives.

Adopting this space in limbo, A Secret Third Thing refutes the derogatory assumptions of inner-city Johannesburg. In turn, the artists presented become active specters that talk back at the city, insinuating the idea of how we can be both the haunted and the ones who haunt in return.

Featured artists include Senzeni Marasela, Ntsako Nkuna, Simon Gush, Smiso Cele, Siyababa, Oratile Papi Konopi, Masindi Mbolekwa.

Cost: Free entry

When: Running from 8 August to 10 October 2026
Where: Goethe-Institut Johannesburg, 119 Jan Smuts Ave, Parkwood, Johannesburg

Reverse Futures at JCAF

The Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation (JCAF) presents the third and final exhibition in its acclaimed ‘Worldmaking’ trilogy, titled Reverse Futures.

Reverse Futures looks to the future from the Global South. The exhibition examines how the effects of colonialism, migration and technological change continue to shape both the present and our vision of what lies ahead.

The title is derived from Nairobi-based architectural practice, Cave_bureau, who coined the term ‘reverse futurism’ to address the impact and effects of colonialism in Africa and specifically Kenya.

Reverse Futures suggests that a fair future requires acknowledging historical injustices while foregrounding plural, locally grounded knowledges shaped by community practices and more sustainable ways of living.

Featured artworks draw from historical research, artists’ lived experiences, community narratives and Indigenous knowledge systems and reflect on migration, memory, ecology, the cosmos and power.

Featured artists in Reverse Futures include Etel Adnan, Cave_bureau, Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler, Paula Gaetano Adi, Kamil Adam Hassim, Traci Kwaai, Ernest Mancoba, Georgia Munnik and Yinka Shonibare, with special projects by Rebecca Potterton and Wolff Architects.

Cost: Entry into JCAF is free, but by appointment only. Reserve your visit here

When: Reverse Futures is open for viewing from 26 June until 5 December 2026. Tuesday to Saturday, based on bookings. Closed on Sunday, Monday and public holidays
Where: The Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation (JCAF), No 1 Durris Road, Forest Town, Johannesburg

John Kani: A Living Legend

For over 25 years, Dr John Kani has helped guide the direction of the Apartheid Museum, an institution whose mandate overlapped uncannily with that of his own plays.

His role as chairman of the Board of Trustees unfolded parallel to his development as a playwright, an art form through which the veteran actor began to ask pertinent questions about the shortfalls of democracy and reconciliation in a society that remains unequal.

From 30 August until 30 November 2026, the Apartheid Museum will honour Kani’s contribution to the institution with an exhibition that revisits key moments in a stage and screen career that, over six decades, has taken him from Port Elizabeth rehearsal rooms to Hollywood studios.

Drawing on images, text, artefacts and film, the exhibition showcases the ideas that have occupied Kani on and off the stage, informing his vision as a mentor and visionary. This exhibition celebrates a man who, sometimes at great personal cost, has ensured that the performing arts have a fighting chance to speak to the present moment.

Cost: Entrance to the Apartheid Museum is R240pp as of 2026. Book via Webtickets

When: Running from 30 August until 30 November 2026. The museum is open Wednesdays to Sundays + public holidays from 9am to 5pm
Where: Apartheid Museum, Northern Parkway, Gold Reef Rd, Ormonde, Johannesburg South

What We Do Not See

What We Do Not See is an exhibition that remembers David Goldblatt in what would have been his 95th year, and explores the idea of home – the structures, places, cultures and relationships that we live within – in and around Johannesburg.

In addition to Goldblatt, the exhibition brings together a group of nine mainly Johannesburg- based photographers: Gulshan Khan, Jabulani Dhlamini, Jo Ractliffe, Jodi Bieber, Lindokuhle Sobekwa, Madoda Mkhobeni, Mark Lewis, Sabelo Mlangeni and Tshepiso Mazibuko.

Exhibition curated by Brenda Goldblatt and Fiona Rankin-Smith and supported by the David Goldblatt Legacy Trust.

Cost: Free entry

When: Running from 4 August to 24 October 2026 during the Art Museum’s opening hours, which are: Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm
Where: Wits Art Museum, University of the Witwatersrand, Cnr Jorissen and Bertha St, Johannesburg

Decisive Moment: Sony World Photography Awards

This August, the Roger Ballen Centre for Photography is giving art and photography appreciators a one-of-a-kind opportunity to witness images from the acclaimed Sony World Photography Awards in South Africa for the very first time.

Decisive Moment: Sony World Photography Awards showcases a curated selection of award-winning images from the 2024, 2025 and 2026 Awards, offering a rare opportunity for local photography enthusiasts, creatives and the wider public to engage with some of the world’s most compelling contemporary photography.

From documentary and portraiture to wildlife, sport, landscape and creative photography, Decisive Moment brings together a wide range of subjects, cultures, environments and artistic approaches.

Cost: R50pp for admission. Though booking in advance is not required, you may book your visit online

When: Decisive Moment is running from 15 August 2026 to 22 January 2027. Visit during centre hours which are: Tuesday to Friday from 10am to 4pm & Saturday from 10am to 12pm
Where: Roger Ballen Centre for Photography, 2 Duncombe Rd, Forest Town, Johannesburg

2026 Ndebele Mining Ceramic Exhibition

The 2026 Ndebele Mining Ceramics Southern Africa Gauteng Regional Exhibition has attracted a record 226 entries from 73 ceramic artists, with an extraordinary 107 works submitted by artists who have never exhibited before.

The exhibition brings together some of the best ceramic work being produced across Gauteng, from established artists to students and emerging ceramicists exhibiting for the very first time.

Throughout the exhibition, participating artists will also take turns “pot-sitting” the show, giving visitors an unusual opportunity to speak directly to working ceramicists about the pieces on display and to find out more about ceramic studios and opportunities to work with clay across Gauteng.

Works will also be available for purchase.

Cost: Free entry

When: Opens Sunday, 30 August 2026 at 10.30am. Running from 30 August to 6 September 2026
from 9am to 4pm daily
Where: Rooftop Chapel, Great Hall, Shepstone Gardens, 12 Hope Road, Mountainview, Johannesburg


(Un)charted Territories

(Un)charted Territories, currently showing in the Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts, is an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the exhibition, sharing fresh insights and new perspectives.

The exhibition reimagines the artist’s book as a unique cartographic instrument. Moving beyond traditional geography, these works transform the map from a tool of control into a dynamic space for encounter and discovery.

The exhibition highlights diverse books that use physical maps, layered folds, and cartographic symbols to visually translate abstract concepts

Cost: Free entry

When: Running until 23 September 2026 during the Art Museum’s opening hours, which are: Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm
Where: Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts at the Wits Art Museum, University of the Witwatersrand, Cnr Jorissen and Bertha St, Johannesburg

Rumours /2026

Rumours /2026 is an exhibition co-curated by Lunetta Bartz on behalf of the Santu Mofokeng Foundation.

Bringing together three bodies of work drawn from Mofokeng’s extended engagement with Bloemhof and its surrounding communities between 1988 and 1994, art-lovers and appreciators of photography get to experience these images and their inspirations firsthand at The Standard Bank Art Lab.

First shown in 1994 as Rumours / The Bloemhof Portfolio, Rumours /2026 returns reactivated and repositioned for a present that will find its depictions still relevant.

The title gestures toward the ways in which knowledge moves: laterally, informally and often without resolution. What emerges is not a singular narrative, but a field of relations shaped by memory, labour, intimacy and belief.

At the centre of the exhibition is The Black Photo Album / Look at Me: 1890–1950, a body of work composed of studio portraits collected by Mofokeng over many years.

On display alongside The Black Photo Album / Look at Me: 1890–1950 is a collection titled Concert at Sewefontein, which traces a moment of collective release.

Finally, the Labour Tenancies collection display anchors the exhibition in the textures of everyday life. 

Cost: Free entry

When: Running from 24 April to 18 October 2026 during Art Lab hours, which are: Monday to Saturday from 9am to 4pm; Sunday and public holidays from 9am to 1pm
Where: Standard Bank Art Lab, West Tower, Shop 33-34 Nelson Mandela Square, 2 Maude St, Sandton

The Don Mattera Obituary Installation

The Apartheid Museum in partnership with the Don Mattera Legacy Foundation will unveil its Don Mattera Obituary Installation on Mandela Day.

Don Mattera was a towering figure in South African literature, journalism and cultural life, whose voice captured the pain and resilience of a nation under apartheid.

Born Donato Francisco Mattera in Johannesburg’s Western Native Township, he was affectionately named Bra Don, Zinga, and Monnapula – the man who came with the rain. Later as a Muslim, he was known as Muhammad Omaruddin.

Shaped by a lineage that reflected South Africa before apartheid, Mattera’s Afro-Italian roots – Khoi-Xhosa, Tswana and Neapolitan respectively – resisted simple definition. Apartheid sought to erase this complexity, reducing him to a racial category and a number. What it could not erase was memory and resistance.

And then there was Sophiatown, a legendary, multi-racial suburb in Johannesburg. Established in 1899, it became one of the few places where Black South Africans could legally own land, and was demolished by the apartheid government in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Growing up in Sophiatown, Mattera came of age amid music, debate, beauty and violence. After surviving gang life, prison and profound loss, words became his refuge. The destruction of Sophiatown marked a turning point, transforming personal grief into political awakening.

Influenced by Pan-Africanism and Black Consciousness, Mattera believed culture was a weapon of liberation. As a poet, journalist, activist, husband and father, he used language as a form of resistance, chronicling the everyday lives of Black South Africans with lyricism, anger, and compassion.

His autobiography, Memory is the Weapon, remains a seminal account of life and loss under apartheid and the power of personal and collective memory.

Cost: Entrance to the Apartheid Museum is R240pp as of 2026. Book via Webtickets

When: Running from 18 July 2026 until December 2027. The museum is open Wednesdays to Sundays + public holidays from 9am to 5pm
Where: Apartheid Museum, Northern Parkway, Gold Reef Rd, Ormonde, Johannesburg South

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