Contra Art Fair restores Johannesburg’s dignity, giving inner-city artists hope and recognition

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor 

Contra the now increasingly getting famous inner city Johannesburg art fair, will take place next week, August 30-31 at several art venues around the city, stretching from the East to the West, such as artist studios and inner city-based galleries, giving visitors a rare opportunity to witness in some cases, artists working in their studios as well as interacting with them. 

And as per what we witnessed on Tuesday, August 19,2025, if you have been following this art fair since it started and you think you already know enough, you better rethink. Johannesburg CBD will always surprise you as the old places that you used to frequent can disappear over time, and new places, equally interesting emerge to take their place. 

The media was given a preview of what this year’s Contra will look like, through a well curated tour that passed certain places that are some of this year’s offering during Contra. I was pleasantly surprised during this tour, even though I regard myself pretty much as a Juburger. This is after all, a place that I have been associated with for years, pretty growing up in different places in the city and on its surrounding suburbs that have been a home to me and also places where my curiosity for entertainment has over the years been catered for. That way, granted, I have been a witness to a changing city, including getting worse and better, clearly a city that is ever in transition. However I witnessed new developments around the city on Tuesday, those related to its rejuvenating creative spirit. 

For example, let us start where the media assembled before the tour, where the hired bus waited for us, which is 29 Scotts Street in Waverley, where I was somehow surprised to find out this is the new home for Stephan Welz. This is the art auction house that is known for selling classical, antique-quality art through its series of auctions it holds throughout the year. 

Because I have been writing about visual art for years, including covering what happens on the second market, the auction art market, besides the primary market, basically the gallery exhibitions, Stephan Welz has been in my rudder for years now. I have visited this auction house at its several homes around the city, perhaps up to three places around the city that it once called home in the Last 15 years, I was therefore surprised now it calls Waverley its home. 

We found in Its gallery, which besides housing art works that will soon go under the hammer as part of its normal auction sales, contemporary art pieces, most of which were recently minted by the participating artists that are part of the auction house’s new initiative focusing on the contemporary art market. In fact, this segment of the market has been in the rudder of the auction house for a long time now.  I remember a conversation I held with its marketing manager a few years ago, when she told me about these plans. These plans have eventually come into fruition through this collaboration with Contra titled Vintage Vanguard Welz Boutique, well curated by a team of curators headed by M Pillay of Stephan Welz. 

Dubbed Reframing the past for Present, building a bridge across time, the exhibition, which being sold separately from the auction house’ normal auction sales during Contra and leading to Contra, features the works of mainly emerging artists: Alpheus Ngoepe, Bafana Nyathi, Blessing Blaai, Chantal Masinga, Dustin August, Johan Stegman, Lisa younger, Lukas Sterzenbach, Melissa Haiden, Nicole Bouwer, Nwabisa Ntlokwana, Ofentse Links, Sihlobo Bukhosi Moyo, Simon Mashapo jnr, Thamsanga Mfuphi and Gustav Krantz. 

Contra founder Sara Hallat after taking the media on a tour of the exhibition thereafter spoke about how the inner-city Johannesburg has become a home of creative energy, inhabited by artists who are found in several studios scattered around the city. This is as big corporates left the city for the northern suburbs. Therefore, Contra in collaboration with other stakeholders, such as the Non-Profit company Jozi My Jozi currently driving efforts to rehabilitate the city, are working hard to reverse the flight of both capital and foot traffic out of the city to what is regarded as ‘safer’ destinations. The sponsors of Jozi My Jozi, is ironically the private sector itself, notably Robbie Brozin the co-founder of internationally reputed South African chicken brand, Nandos’ and financial institutions that still operate part of their business in Johannesburg CBD.  

Dawn Roberston, who recently left the public sector to assume the position of Chief Architect for Jozi My Jozi, spoke of how the organization is serious about reversing the urban decay that is obvious even to the naked eye in the once beloved Johannesburg CBD. This is as infrastructure continues to crumble, several abandoned buildings have become an eyesore due to neglect, trash continues to pile up in the streets, petty crime becomes rife and homelessness continues to be a headache to those trying to bring back Johannesburg into its former glory. 

“What we are doing is to plug the gap that government is unable to fill. However, we have also discovered that homelessness is a big problem. The city does not even know how many people are homeless in the city. This issue of homeless people sleeping rough in the city does not help efforts to get the city back to where it should be. We have therefore unleashed a group of people who will hit the road early in the morning soon, documenting the homeless in the city, to find out who they are and what their needs are. This is because we have noticed that no sooner, we put up public artworks than they are defaced by the homeless looking for shelter everywhere in the night. There is even no single shelter for the homeless in the city,” Robertson said. 

She added that in Contra, they found a perfect partner as the art fair is also trying to get the city back to be working by bringing those with money back into the city to feel safe as they shop for valuable art being created by talented artists numbering over 170 working in the city in their studios located in buildings around the city.