Here’s our round-up of local exhibitions and shows for you to enjoy in 2025. We’ll be adding to this list throughout the year.
COMPILED BY Gina Dionisio PHOTOS Anton Scholtz (ICTAF)
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January
Mid Stream by Simon Stone
Current – 23 January 2025 | SMAC, Cape Town
Simon Stone’s exhibition presents richly layered and intricate paintings that juxtapose seemingly disconnected elements, inviting viewers to uncover their own connections and interpretations. His works resist easy decoding, instead offering a meditative experience where fragments harmonise into meaningful wholes.
Condescending by Tangeni Kambudu
Current – 25 January 2025 | WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town
Tangeni Kambudu’s exhibition Condescending explores the mirror as a metaphor for reflection, transparency, and the fragments of identity. Using materials like glass, mirrors, and reflective vinyl, Kambudu creates layered works that distort and obscure the viewer’s reflection, challenging perceptions of self and others. Influenced by his background in fashion design, his meticulous craftsmanship highlights the interplay between exposure and concealment, likening his mirror patterns to the human experience.
Hout Bay and Llandudno Art Fair
30 January – 2 February 2025 | Ghuba Gallery & LUMI
The inaugural Hout Bay and Llandudno Art Fair will celebrate the amazing talent of artists from two of Cape Town’s most vibrant creative suburbs. This event will provide a platform for both new collectors starting their journey and experienced buyers looking to add unique pieces to their collections.
The featured exhibition, Dual Currents, at Ghuba Gallery highlights the connection between nature and artistry. This collection is designed to captivate and inspire, providing a glimpse into the creative spirit of the community.
Along with the exclusive preview and opening night at Ghuba Gallery, a series of events and workshops will be held at LUMI to showcase the world-class art scene in this picturesque part of the Mother City.
A portion of proceeds from ticket sales for the Fair will go to Lalela, an organisation that provides educational arts for youth from under-resourced communities to spark creative thinking and awaken the entrepreneurial spirit.
Tickets to the exclusive preview and opening night taking place on 30 and 31 January respectively are available via WebTickets. Entrance on 1 and 2 February is free.
33.55°S Group Exhibition
Current – 1 February 2025 | Kalashnikovv Gallery, Cape Town
33.55°S celebrates the Cape Town gallery’s geographical and philosophical foundation, exploring the dynamic interplay between abstraction and representational figuration. Featuring pieces by 21 artists, including Boytchie, Cinthia Sifa Mulanga, Tinyiko Makwakwa, and Dion Cupido, the exhibition represents a rich tapestry of styles and perspectives. This thoughtfully curated collection highlights the gallery’s commitment to fostering dialogue and creative expression.
iMvelaphi by Chuma Maweni
Current – 27 February 2025 | Southern Guild, Cape Town
iMvelaphi marks the artist’s first solo exhibition, which we covered on VISI in a recent article, and features his largest collection of handcrafted furniture, lighting, and vessels to date. A master of wheel-thrown ceramics, Chuma has pioneered the translation of Xhosa pottery traditions into contemporary collectable design, evolving new typologies of form and applications of scale that are entirely distinct.
February
Botterblom Collection by Frances VH Mohair Studio
3 February – 21 February 2025 | Strauss & Co (online auction)
This remarkable collection of handwoven tapestries, created by the artisans of Frances VH Mohair Studio, offers a heartfelt exploration of heritage, and artistry inspired by the Karoo’s rich landscape and the stories of the community that call it home.
Presented alongside the second iteration of Woven Legacies: Celebrating African Artistry, an annual auction showcasing the evolution of artisanal craftsmanship across the continent, the collection honours the artistry of traditional techniques while celebrating the creativity of local artisans, fostering a deeper appreciation of craft in a contemporary context.
The online auction opens on 3 February, and collectors are invited to view the collections at Strauss & Co’s Woodstock offices in Cape Town, from 4 February 2025.
A series of events will accompany the sales, including a walkabout with Frances van Hasselt, the founder of Frances VH Mohair Studio, on Sunday, 16 February 2025 at 10am, followed by a screening of a film documenting the making of Botterblom Collection. A second screening of the film will take place on Thursday 20th February at 10am.
Water Memoirs by Tharien Smith
6 February – 30 March 2025 | Sisonke Gallery, Cape Town
Tharien Smith unveils Water Memoirs, a striking new collection that immerses viewers in the hypnotic world of tidal pools, ponds, and swimming pools. Inspired by the way light, movement, and texture interact in these aquatic spaces, the artist’s layered artworks transform discarded materials into vibrant compositions—blurring the lines between fine art, design, and environmental consciousness.
Presented by House Union Block (HUB), an initiative of Spier Arts Trust, this collection marks a pivotal moment in Smith’s career following her participation in the prestigious Nando’s Creative Exchange in 2023.
Prism by Adele van Heerden
8 February – 7 March 2025 | 131 A Gallery, Cape Town
Prism is the latest series from multidisciplinary artist Adele Van Heerden – nine intimate works shaped by a period of restoration and reflection in Biesenthal, Germany. During the artist’s stay, Adele was also in the process of recovering from an injury all while freshly anchored to the calm of the program, the company of her fellow residents, and the town’s lush landscape. The opportunity to slow her process arose from the need to limit her physicality during this time. Adele committed herself to the ritual of observation, reflection and limnological fascination with Lake Wukensee. This latest collection comprises moments memorialised in pastel and gouache on film, across varying dimensions of scale and with fresh approaches to the hues in the artist’s signature palette.
An Extraordinary Life by Kyle Jardine
8 February – 3 March 2025 | AITY Gallery, Franschhoek
Kyle Jardine‘s second solo show at AITY Gallery promises to enchant the imagination. The artist is know for his colourful works brimming with quirkiness and eccentricity. His work shines a spotlight on the beauty in life’s overlooked moments, offering glimpses of the absurd and the playful that often slip past unnoticed. “I’ve always believed in magnifying the little things: the tiny features, the fleeting moments we take for granted. They’re the secret ingredients of a magical life,” he says. “There’s no limit to the wild possibilities unfolding around us, if only we’re willing to let our imaginations roam.”
The Journey Within by Lizette Chirrime
10 February – 17 April | HUB Gallery
The Journey Within, a solo exhibition showcasing African artist Lizette Chirrime’s transformative textile artworks and one-of-a-kind garments, transcends traditional boundaries to explore themes of healing, identity and resilience. Chirrime’s journey into garment-making began as a personal endeavour, as she sewed custom pieces for special occasions. The striking nature of her creations soon captured the attention of her community, inspiring her to establish a business that would support her art career.
How Far is Africa?
19 – 23 February | 18 Loop Street, Cape Town
Four International artists, Annette Werndl, Guillermo Bublik, Claudia Hassel, and Leonard Gabriel, are set to showcase their latest works at How Far is Africa?. This exhibition will bring their unique artistic visions together, creating a compelling dialogue about colour, form, and human expression.
The exhibition is presented in partnership with The Artists Gallery, located at 34 Bree Street in Cape Town. The gallery is co-owned and managed by South African artists who share a passion for connecting art and people.
Investec Cape Town Art Fair
21 – 23 February 2025 | Investec Cape Town Art Fair, CTICC
The 12th edition of the Investec Cape Town Art Fair is the largest contemporary art fair in Africa, featuring 124 exhibitors from around the globe, including 30 first-time participants. Highlights include curated sections like SOLO, Generations, and Lookout for emerging galleries, as well as talks, tours, and citywide activations that celebrate Cape Town’s vibrant cultural scene.
March
Incognito by Richard Smith
19 March – 26 April 2025 | EBONY/CURATED Cape Town
EBONY/CURATED Cape Town presents Richard Smith’s sixth solo exhibition, Incognito. The series features eleven oil paintings created in a mountain village near Gandia, Spain. Smith’s dreamlike works depict human figures in intricate outdoor and indoor settings, blending surreal landscapes with figuration. Building on his exploration of the human form, Smith revisits familiar elements like stage-like settings and painterly marks, creating fresh, captivating imagery. The exhibition’s title piece features a masked figure, evoking Spain’s landscape and cultural motifs, with Smith’s vibrant palette bringing the work to life.
Spier Light Art 2025 – Shining Bright
21 March – 21 April 2025 | Spier Wine Farm
With sixteen site-specific art installations activating the landscape, visitors will be free to wander, discover, and immerse themselves in the play of light and the stories that each artwork tells – an embodied reminder of art’s transformative power to illuminate even the darkest corners of our world and minds. The exhibition ignites fresh sparks and interchange between local and visiting artists and audiences from the continent and the world at large.
Madi, Madi by Lady Skollie
29 March – 26 April 2025 | Everard Read Johannesburg
Madi is the Setswana word for ‘money’, but it also means ‘blood’— and in this new solo exhibition by Lady Skollie, these essential forces collide.
“The whole show is about money because that’s literally what everything is about,” the award-winning artist says. Money is a lifeblood, but one that comes with complexities. “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,” she adds.
April
Is it ok to use neons? by Debbie Field
3 April – 4 June 2025 | Sisonke Gallery Cape Town
Cape Town-based artist Debbie Field explores the psychology of colour on canvas with her solo exhibition Is it ok to use neons?. From layers of vibrant neons and fluorescents emerges an immersive exploration of pigment and texture, as colours play across the surfaces of canvas, board and paper deliberately chosen to evoke immediate emotional responses before inviting intellectual analysis.
Selected for the Nando’s Creative Exchange 2025, the artist’s approach embodies Virginia Woolf’s sentiment ‘I am in the mood to dissolve in the sky’, creating works where the boundaries between observer and artwork blur, leaving only the pure experience of colour itself.
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