The Unisa Art Gallery is hosting a transformative exhibition which opened on 26 July 2026. "Place & Practice: Collective Voices from Ellis House" is a cohesive group exhibition that celebrates community-based art centre artists' socio-cultural impact and creative outputs. The exhibits displayed depict diverse perspectives and contemporary output methodologies by artists from Ellis House.

This exhibition demystifies non-conventional art products as it makes a profound statement on decolonisation and material transformation; it uses this approach to project collective voices within the South African art landscape as a discourse for growing a community that appreciates art.

The target audience for "Place & Practice" broadly encompasses art enthusiasts, academics, students and the wider community interested in contemporary South African art. It is social commentary through the re-imagining of artistic narratives. It was reflective of the audience present at the inauguration. The art display relayed a valuable message and acted as a tool for social intervention and a reflection of lived realities.

The importance of this exhibition lies in its radical approach to materiality and its challenge to conventional art hierarchies. As highlighted in the opening address by Daniel Rankadi Mosako, the featured artists, who include Phumzile Buthelezi, Lehlogonolo Masoabi, Senzeni Marasela, Cassius Khumalo and Belmiro Jemusse, have cracked the code on knowledge and information dissemination strategies through constructive, layered and multifaceted visual narratives that use ordinary and non-sophisticated media.

Their use of unconventional materials, ranging from plastics and industrial waste to organic residue, is not simply an act of novelty, but a powerful social intervention, prompting viewers to reconsider traditional notions of expression, status and art itself. This conscious choice of materials speaks to resourcefulness and environmental concern, and it critiques social stratification, prioritising the spiritual core and cultural narratives embedded in everyday objects within African contexts.

A significant aspect of the exhibition was outlined by artist Marasela, who elevated the importance of community art structures, that is, to "help and encourage artists to have a common focused art production mind". Marasela, a fine art graduate, drew on her experience and the value of communal art production while at an art residency at the Bag Factory with the late internationally acclaimed artist, David Koloane.

In addition, Buthelezi, one of the participating artists, emphasised that a community of practice acts as a springboard for artists to achieve international recognition. She eloquently likened the Ellis House community art centre to iconic institutions like Rorke’s Drift and Polly Street, highlighting its role as a "family space for artists with a common purpose and collective thinking". This model promotes an ideal environment for attracting collectors and young scholars through open studio practices, demonstrating how collective spaces sustain artists' careers by encouraging dedication to artistic production within a collaborative framework.

The exhibition serves as a demonstration of Unisa’s commitment to transformation, Africanisation and decolonisation. This was noted by Winnie Mokgupi, who, in her reflection statement, associated the exhibition’s operationalisation with "epistemic freedom" as it brought forth "silenced voices of the invisibilised" and challenged the notion that anything outside conventional art spaces is informal. She added that the exhibition represented a "pragmatic struggle for transformation empowered by ethics of liberation and material decolonisation seeking Africanisation that rehumanises all". 

As a public display, "Place & Practice: Collective Voices from Ellis House" compelled its viewers to excavate meaning from matter and recognise the transformative potential embedded in the materials of everyday life. The Unisa Art Gallery and the exhibition installation team were acknowledged for bringing this impactful show to fruition. The exhibition is a powerful call to engage with art that is aesthetically compelling and deeply rooted in social consciousness and a re-imagining of possibility.

The exhibition will run until 22 August 2025.

* By Seoka Emily Tshegofatso, Unisa Art Gallery Curator, Lemaoane Lawrence, Department of Art and Music Marketing Coordinator, and Daniel Rankadi Mosako, Acting Chair of the Department of Art and Music