When night falls over Spier Wine Farm, a different energy emerges. The familiar fades away as darkened pathways soften, shadows stretch, and the moon and stars illuminate the sky – creating the ideal setting for a light art exhibition. Back for the eighth time, Spier Light Art 2026 is an annual invitation to encounter our farm, and ourselves, in a different light.
Running from 6 March to 6 April 2026, Spier Light Art transforms our working wine farm into a nocturnal open–air gallery. Visitors are encouraged to wander at their own pace, letting curiosity and chance guide the way. (Don’t worry, there will also be printed and digital maps available.) One of the continent’s most significant platforms for contemporary light art, the exhibition shines a light on emerging and established artists from South Africa and beyond.
Through a curation of installations, light becomes a message, medium and metaphor – a way for artists to communicate their thoughts and experiences of the world. Rather than focusing on a single theme, this year is about memory and forgetting, technology and nature, care and control, fragility and resilience.
Spier Light Art is free and open to the public, but booking is essential.
Visitors can also choose a ticketed farm food experience, from casual bites and shared picnics to sit–down dinners, and join a guided tour for deeper insight into the artworks. Think of Spier Light Art 2026 as an invitation to step away from the solitary glare and share in a collective illumination.
Ticket options
While access to Spier Light Art is free, booking is essential. This year we’ve introduced additional ticketed food experiences so you can plan your evening – whether that’s a burger, pizza, picnic or relaxed sit–down dinner.
Ticket types include:
- FREE – Complimentary entry
- R140 – Entry and a burger at Bubbles & Braai
- R195 – Entry and a pizza at Vadas Smokehouse & Bakery
- R395 – Entry and a sunset picnic
- R495 – Entry and dinner at Veld, including a glass of Creative Block wine
Optional add-ons to make the most of your visit: Guided tours are hosted every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday evening during the exhibition. Tours, which are also free, depart from the info kiosk at 19h30 and must be pre-booked.
Click HERE to book now.
Back for his fourth Spier Light Art is Kenneth Shandu, with ‘When the Sky Falls’ – an installation reflecting on South Africa’s devastating floods and the resilience of affected communities.
Sam ‘/XAM’ Fortuin’s ‘Onthou’ is an audio–visual short film of a recurring dream that begins and ends on the edge of a kelp forest on the Cape Town coast.
Qondiswa James, Nathalie Ponlot, Themba Stewart and Jonathan O’Hear form a collective of artists, exhibiting ‘Safe in the Shadows’ – an interactive installation that reclaims darkness as sanctuary.
Thando Mama’s ‘1994 (I) (Revisited)’ reflects on the country’s past, present and future, examining its journey since the dawn of democracy in 1994.
The Kunye Collab, featuring imagineer Dirk Durnez and light creator/specialist Marc Machtelinckx, considers the symmetry between the human body and the cosmos with ‘Lumen Vitae’ (Light of Life in Latin).
Of course, there will be many more artists exhibiting, but all will explore light – how it marks time and space, and shapes daily life – from the glow of screens in private to the shared illumination of public spaces, from ancestral stories to speculative futures. On the farm, the artworks are in conversation with the moon and stars, rewarding the patient and curious visitor whose choice of where to linger shapes their experience.
