2025 marked a defining chapter for the Keyes Art Mile, one shaped by considered experimentation, curatorial ambition, and collaborations that deepened the precinct’s role within Johannesburg’s cultural landscape. Across art, ecology, and design, the year signalled a shift towards a more integrated and reflective mode of cultural production.
One of the most quietly transformative developments has been the evolution of the Veld Wall, the Mile’s vertical planting installation rooted in the endangered Egoli Granite Grassland. Recently relocated to a more sunlit, art-facing position, the move reflects a commitment to stewardship rather than spectacle, with the wall responding to natural systems and seasonal rhythms. Comprising 5,900 indigenous plants, it functions as a living archive of conservation and change, where grasses, bulbs, perennials, and aloes create a shifting study of texture, colour, and light, with early freesia blooms already hinting at the layers of transformation still to come. Find the wall in the Keyes Art Mile parking – and watch how it shifts with the seasons.
The year also saw the opening of Keyes Art Mile’s flagship art space, Gallery 1, conceived as a site for sustained artistic inquiry rather than episodic display, with museum-quality conditions. Positioned as a platform for dialogue, the gallery considers how culture is lived and negotiated in everyday contexts, inviting close engagement with the ideas shaping contemporary visual discourse – and contributing to research on Contemporary South African Art.
Its inaugural exhibition, Looking Back, Seeing Now, offered a nuanced reading of South African modernism. Bringing together artists from Irma Stern to Alexis Preller, the exhibition traced evolving notions of identity, place, and artistic possibility within a complex historical frame, foregrounding continuity as much as rupture.
This was followed by Thorned, an exhibition that unfolded as a meditation on beauty, vulnerability, and transcendence. Works by Wim Botha, Beezy Bailey, Judith Mason, and others created a tension between monumentality and intimacy. From Botha’s Scapegoat to Starcke’s Transfiguration on the Pipetrack, the exhibition encouraged a slower, more contemplative mode of looking, where emotional resonance carried equal weight to formal composition.
Building on this momentum, Gallery 1 continues to grow and develop in 2026, evolving alongside the expansion of the precinct. As Keyes Art Mile 2.0 takes shape, an ambitious programme signals a strengthening of the Mile’s curatorial and cultural focus.
Alongside its exhibition programme, the Mile also invested in critical discourse through the first season of Writers’ Block. The programme brought together public talks and small-group workshops to explore how art is written about, debated, and understood in South Africa today. Conversations in The Atrium, featuring the Writers’ Block team – Bárbara Rousseaux, Christa Dee, and David Mann –with guest speakers Robin Scher, Lawrence Lemaoana, and Serge Nitegeka, drew engaged audiences into open discussions around criticism, storytelling, and the art ecosystem.
These public exchanges fed into a series of private workshops with a cohort of emerging writers, where the focus shifted to process, shared reading, and developing new writing on South African art. As Writers’ Block prepares for a second season focused on Performance, the programme reinforces the Mile’s role not only as a site for exhibition, but as a space for thinking together and sustaining the conversations that surround contemporary cultural practice. In the thoughtful words of David Mann:
“As we consolidate Season 1 and prepare for the second Season of Writers’ Block, which will carry a focus on Performance, it remains clear to us that, in addition to its galleries, restaurants, and retail spaces, Keyes Art Mile is an important space for gathering, and collectively thinking through the contemporary art industry.”
The Mile also reaffirmed its commitment to craft through The Artists’ Press, celebrating 35 years of South African printmaking excellence. The November pop-up brought together limited-edition lithographs by Sam Nhlengethwa, Walter Oltmann, and more than 40 artists, complemented by discussions and live music. The event highlighted printmaking as a deeply collaborative practice, reinforcing its relevance within a contemporary cultural economy increasingly dominated by the digital.
Fashion, too, found a considered place within the precinct. December’s Threads of Connection transformed the Atrium into a site of cross-cultural exchange, presenting work by South African and Austrian designers including Siyababa Atelier, Cult Moxie, and Goran Bugaric. The programme foregrounded shared narratives of heritage and innovation, unfolding through performance, sound, and unexpected encounters.
As the Mile looks towards 2026, it continues to position itself as both a cultural and ecological destination. The convergence of living systems, rigorous programming, and interdisciplinary collaboration points towards a precinct that is less concerned with static identity than with ongoing conversation.
Rather than a culmination, 2025 reads as a foundation. What lies ahead is an extension of this thinking: a commitment to growth that is intentional, critical, and open-ended. In an ever-evolving Johannesburg, the Keyes Art Mile remains a place where culture is not only presented, but actively shaped.
For those interested in joining this evolving precinct, a limited selection of retail, studio, and office spaces is available to rent at Keyes Art Mile. Further details can be found via the Keyes website or by contacting grow@keyesartmile.co.za