Maboneng Precinct

The Maboneng Precinct is a creative, vibrant neighbourhood located on the East side of Johannesburg’s inner-city, in South Africa. Maboneng is a Sesotho word that means “place of light”. In a still economically fragmented and racially divided Johannesburg, Maboneng is an innovative urban environment that encourage diversity in terms of uses, races, income, ages. It is also now one of the most renowned creative districts in the world.

I ART JO’BURG introduced 5 of some of the world most renowned street artists to the heart of Maboneng : Steve Espo Powers, Roa, Falko, Remed and Cameron Platter. The project was documented by legendary street-photographer Martha Cooper.

Belgium street artist Roa is primarily known for his obsession for animals and rodents. He often combines life, death, and life after death in his murals, by using spray paint or acrylic paint, with a distinctive black and white style. 

Madrid artist Remed combines strikingly bold colours with strong lines and a raw-African inspired cubism. He collaborated actively to the development of "Remeds View" building, a students residency in the Maboneng Precinct. 

In South Africa, Falko is herald as a graffiti icon, not only for his style, but also for establishing graffiti as a credible visual art form, and for creating a platform for aspiring writers.  

South African artist Cameron Platter fills the ordinary and marginal with incendiary new meaning. Working from everyday experience with subjects overlooked or considered delinquent, sordid and lowbrow, he sheds light on notions and concepts on the outside fringes of South Africa’s popular culture.

Sonny is a British artist based in South Africa. His pieces are inspired by African patterns, modern representations, and fantasy. 

Chinese-born artist DALeast explores movement and speed of African animals with this stunning installation on the Maverick Corner building. 

“The Gate” mural by Berlin-based artist Superblast is situated just under one of Johannesburg's highways, which reminds the artist of a “snake of concrete and cars that run through the city and gives it its heartbeat'.  The artwork is installed on the Maboneng Northern gateway. In mythology, gateways represent renaissance, renewal, and a transition to another life. The serpent symbolises the alterity, the fear of the unknown. For Superblast, “On a more local scale, the snake represents the struggle that the city and the country has gone through. In African mythology the serpent is also seen as the birth-giving creator of the world.  Hence this piece symbolizes the rebirth of the neighbourhood”.

"Now and Then" is a collaboration piece on South African iconography and symbolism. Contributing artists are KNOW HOPE (Tel Aviv), Gaia (NY), Franco JAZ Fasoli (Buenos Aires), and Freddy Sam (SA).

Nelson Makamo is a prolific South African artist, famous for his portraits, often using a mix of bright colours on a dark background. The street-lenght artwork on Van Beek Street, Maboneng, displays children going about their everyday life, captured by the artist in their movements and emotions. 

NY street artist Gaia and South African artist Freddy Sam co-created this portait of Dutch colonial Jan Van Riebeeck, the founder of Cape Town. The pattern work inspired by both nature and technology is an interesting reference to the country's past and modernity. 

Artist, photographer and film director Ralph Ziman explores the duality of terror and worship that firearms hold in African culture. The mural, based on Ziman's photographs of vendors posing with their crafted prop AK 47, aims at bringing awareness on the international arms trade that profits on the suffering and oppression of millions of Africans.

"Good Luck" is an artwork by South African artist Faith 47.

Kevin Love painted the mural "Love Ain't Nobody's Bitch" just above an open air canal in the heart of Maboneng.

Community Chalkboard on Fox Street, Maboneng. 

The "Remote Words" installation was curated in 2009 by Indra Wussow, in a collaboration with Niq Mhlongo. It  gave the Maboneng Precinct its name.