Exhibitions NOW SHOWING

Temporary Exhibitions

IMPACT by Joni Brenner

IMPACT presents an in-depth artistic response to a scientific subject—the 2.5-2.8-million-year-old Taung skull. This exhibition encapsulates Brenner’s long-term creative engagement with the skull, broadly exploring themes of fragility and survival, destruction and creation, uncertainty, loss, pressure, and chance. Her work draws from the fragmentary nature of archaeological evidence; strikingly combining different mediums and surfaces – from paper, canvas and stone veneer to clay, plaster of paris, bronze and film. R30/R60 entry, tickets available on webtickets. Extended to 31 July 2025.

For walkabouts and exhibition events, please check our social media.

Cosmic Echoes: Shared Sky Indigenous Art

Exhibition from 23 May to 5 July 2025 at Origins Centre

The Wits Origins Centre, the SKA Observatory (SKAO) and the SA Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) take great pleasure in inviting you to the Johannesburg opening of the 'Cosmic Echoes: Shared Sky Indigenous Art' exhibition.

The exhibition features work of Indigenous Artists from the Northern Cape and Australia, connecting cutting-edge science with ancient wisdom and understanding of the heavens.
The exhibition is made possible by SKAO, SARAO and the Wits Science Faculty, with the Wajarri Group and CSIRO.

RSVP for opening (22 May at 6pm) is essential: khomotso.mokori@skao.int. Enquiries: tammy.hodgskiss@wits.ac.za.
Exhibition is open for visits from 23 May 2025 during regular museum hours. Tickets on webtickets or at the door.

Permanent Exhibitions

The interactive exhibits at Origins Centre take visitors on an extraordinary journey of discovery, which begins with the origins of humankind in Africa and then moves through the development of technology, art, culture, and symbolism. The journey continues with an exploration of the diverse Southern African rock art traditions. These ancient masterworks, and the artists, are illustrated through contemporary art installations by well-known South African artists.

Our permanent exhibitions:

Indigenous Gardens – edible and medicinal plants from different biomes that were used in the past and currently by ritual specialists throughout southern Africa.
African Origins - Early African stone tools from 2.6 million years ago; the origins of humanity in Africa and what makes us human; The sands of time across the world; replica hominin skulls showing our human evolution over the last 7 million years
The San and Rock Art - San and their Hunter-Gatherer past; San genocide and Sara Baartman; The eland in San belief; San painting technologies; The trance dance and how San ritual specialists enter the spirit world; rain making and neuropsychology; Interpreting a rock art panel.
Rock Engraving Archive - Varied engraved rock art traditions & styles in Southern Africa. Can be explored through augmented reality (Download the app on Android or IOS – originscentrear)
Conservation - Conservation problems facing rock art sites today and site etiquette
Tapestry Room – Understanding and interpreting San Art; The history of the San told through 11 embroidered panels; The ‘White Lady of the Brandberg’
Khoe Art - The geometric art found in southern Africa; Who are the Khoekhoen?
Early (Iron Age) Farmers - The rise of complex societies, including information on Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe; Protest art of the Makgabeng
Installations by contemporary artists – One Being by Deborah Glencross; World Map by Walter Oltman; Axis Mundi by Russel Scott; Synanthrope by Hannelie Coetzee; Signs of people by Willem Boshoff; Threads of knowing by Tamar Mason; Double Vision by Pippa Scotness & Malcolm Payne; Glass Beads by Martli Jansen van Rensburg.