Words & pics – Ryan Enslin
Forget what you think you know about Joburg. Join Ryan as he explores its vibrant backstreets and studios, uncovering a thriving art scene and a city brimming with creativity, resilience and colour, far richer than the headlines suggest.
There are few ways to experience Joburg as intimately as from the saddle of a bicycle. The city reveals herself differently when you’re moving slowly enough to truly notice. Glass towers give way to mural-splashed facades and forgotten corners pulse with unexpected creativity. As you pass people on the street, smiles come easily, hands lift in greeting and Joburg’s spirit begins to speak.
Leading this dialogue is Kennedy Tembo, founder of Micro Adventure Tours, a man whose love for the city runs as deep as the gold mines it was built on. Kennedy is a storyteller on two wheels, a curator of Joburg’s hidden narratives whose tours reveal the city’s beating heart. A former IT specialist, he left the corporate world in 2018 to pursue a calling rooted in passion.
Taking in the inner city by bicycle
Kennedy’s tours challenge tired narratives about Joburg, replacing fear with curiosity and hesitation with discovery. Whether pedalling between artist studios, walking to hidden coffee shops, or visiting historic landmarks, his mission is clear: to showcase a city bursting with creativity, resilience and soul. His infectious love for Joburg turns strangers into friends and uncertainty into appreciation.
It’s this spirit that frames the art and cycling tour I joined, a ride through the inner city, connecting creative spaces and meeting the artists shaping Joburg’s cultural pulse.
Victoria Yards
Our journey begins at the studio of James Delaney, nestled within Victoria Yards. A multidisciplinary artist, Delaney works across print, sculpture and painting, but is equally renowned for his transformative work at The Wilds, a once-forgotten urban park now revived with whimsical animal sculptures and renewed community spirit. All thanks to his quiet determination.
Victoria Yards hums with this same creative energy, and is also home to artists Dario Manjate and Arlindo Maunde, each adding their own voice to the collective.
Ellis House
Leaving Victoria Yards, we pedalled leisurely through Bertrams, cheered on by children waving from front gates. The route is cleverly plotted, with safety always top of mind for Kennedy. A sweeper rides at the back, making sure no one is left behind, or caught off-guard up by one of Joburg’s infamous potholes. Soon, the facade of Ellis House comes into view, a vertical village of artists perched on the edge of New Doornfontein, just around the corner from Ellis Park Stadium, officially Emirates Airline Park, Joburg’s legendary rugby venue.
It’s here that I meet Siyabonga Mlambi, a radiant creative force whose studio is a kaleidoscope of colour, texture and meaning. His signature two-sided faces, in bold, contrasting hues, explore unity, duality and the threads that connect us all. “It’s about two souls becoming one,” he tells me. Siya also gathers the offcuts from his canvases, scraps once destined for the bin, and shapes them into sculptural figures adorned with his signature motif, a quiet affirmation that creativity begins with simply using what you have.
Siya’s work is a reflection of life itself, vivid, layered and deeply human. His pieces now live on walls across five continents, a quiet testament to how his message of unity and connection resonates far beyond the streets of Joburg.
The Franklin
Leaving Siya’s studio behind, we zigzagged through the inner city, the restless pulse of traffic giving way to the broad, industrial sprawl of Newtown. Our destination was The Franklin, a converted high-rise where artist Conrad Botha holds court on the sixth floor. Reaching his studio required a determined push up several of the building’s parking ramps, legs burning but spirits high.
I find Conrad in a reflective mood, contemplating the rhythms of the art world, the ebb and flow of buyers and the strange seasonality of it all. Yet his energy remains upbeat as he puts the finishing touches on works destined to be shipped out. As a proponent of the Superblur Art Movement, Conrad creates work that lives in the space between clarity and abstraction. The movement rejects rigid definitions, favouring images that shift, dissolve and reform depending on how you view them. Using the halftone dot technique furthers this ambiguity.
Before we leave, Conrad gestures to a table where a box of wine sits waiting, unpretentious, practical. As glasses are filled, our conversation continues and the lines between art and life quietly dissolve, as they often do here.
August House
Back across town, we make our way to August House, a towering 1940s building that hums with artistic energy. Long established as a hub for contemporary African expression, it feels like an ecosystem of creativity; part studio, part sanctuary. Here, Teboho Makoatsa welcomes us into his sunlit space. A series of works immediately catches my eye, portraits of a young girl, playful and carefree, balancing in her mother’s high heels, delighting in the sheer fun of it. “It happened one day when a cousin visited with his daughter,” Teboho explains. “She slipped on her mom’s high heels, grabbed my brushes, and ran around the studio.”
What began as a spontaneous, joyful moment has evolved into an ongoing series, each piece a meditation on how children mirror the world around them. “It’s something everyone recognises,” he adds. “It’s often the first thing visitors connect with when they step into my studio.”
We linger, chatting about creativity and play, before it’s time to push on once more. There’s a quiet satisfaction in noticing how this thread of childhood joy, playful, uninhibited and full of possibility, continues into our final stop at the Living Artist Emporium, a creative enclave within the old Ellis Park Tennis Club.
Living Artist Emporium
Once the clubhouse of the Ellis Park Tennis Club, the Living Artist Emporium is now a vibrant hive of creativity. Studios spill across the rooftop, while the old viewing deck has become a gallery space, alive with colour and conversation, showcasing the work of the artists who create here.
It’s here I meet Splash Motang, whose portraits are stitched together from fragments of fabric, each piece a symbol of identity, belonging and shared humanity. “Every fabric represents a people,” he explains, from local tribes to distant nations from across the waters.
Nearby, Danisile Njoli’s studio bursts with joyful colour. His work is a tender tribute to the everyday magic of childhood – laughter, play and that fleeting, weightless sense of possibility. “I’ve always been a child at heart,” he smiles, describing how he wanders the streets of Joburg, quietly collecting the moments that become his art. This is what the Emporium offers, not just art, but living, breathing reflections of the city itself.
As we cycle back toward Victoria Yards, the city feels different. The stories gathered along the way linger, threads of resilience, creativity and connection woven into the fabric of Joburg. What stays with me is how each artist, in their own way, mirrors the city itself. Bold. Layered. Joyful. Unapologetically alive.
This is Joburg beyond the headlines, revealed at the human pace of a bicycle, through the eyes of those who shape it. You arrive a visitor. You leave with a deeper knowing, and a renewed sense of how alive this city truly is.
For more on the vast array of tours offered by Kennedy, contact him via www.microadventuretours.co.za or +27 83 772 4678.
