A new group exhibition, bringing artists from across the Eastern Cape together without trying to make them all fit around one idea, is set to open next month in Gqeberha.
The List Is Empty will open on 27 August at Dolphin’s Leap Conference Centre in Humewood and will feature artists such as Lungile Nduna, Andile Tetani, Asavela Rono, Seamus Coetzee and Aqhoshile Gomeni, among others.
The List Is Empty will put the artists’ practices and differences on display in a shared space, while still letting them control their own presentation.
No collective, no canon
Unlike other group shows or collectives, The List Is Empty does not try to tie these artists together under one umbrella.
The artists in this exhibition have practised independently of each other, had different opportunities and exhibited in different places. The exhibition allows the audience to experience these practices in conversation with each other, within a contemporary Gqeberha context.
The name of the exhibition itself is indicative of it.
“There is no group, the list is empty,” says Gomeni, who was part of the team that conceptualised the exhibition. “We thought about a magazine that brings people, topics and art together that have nothing to do with each other.” This was the idea behind The List Is Empty – a space for the different practices of artists without demanding they create something unified.
Different practices, one space
The List Is Empty puts the varied practices of these artists in conversation with each other.
As Gomeni explains, instead of positioning these artists and their work as a collective, this exhibition foregrounds the differences between them.
This is especially exciting within the context of the Eastern Cape and its contemporary art scene, where an artist can practice their work in different contexts within the region, in different spaces and with different audiences. The List Is Empty allows them to come together to share that work within one space.
A contemporary Gqeberha audience
In the same way that the exhibition allows these artists to share space, it also gives Eastern Cape audiences the opportunity to see the work of these artists together. The List Is Empty takes place at Dolphin’s Leap conference centre, on Humewood Road, and is supported by the space and its staff.
“For us it was also an important opportunity to be in a space without losing the differences that come with these practices,” says Gomeni.
The List Is Empty opens on 27 August 2026 at 16:00 and runs until 28 September 2026 at Dolphin’s Leap Conference Centre, 35 Humewood Road, Humewood, Gqeberha. This group show is deliberately not a canon, and leaves the definition of the Eastern Cape contemporary art scene up to the viewer.
