On Friday, January 16, STEVENSON Amsterdam debuted its latest group exhibition, Whispers Down the Alley, a conceptual exploration of how meaning transforms as it travels between individuals, cultures, and generations. Curated in collaboration with Jeannette Ten Kate, founder of The Art Connector, the show transforms the gallery into a physical manifestation of “broken telephone,” where visual ideas are passed from one artist to the next, evolving—and often distorting—along the way.
The exhibition features a prestigious roster of contemporary artists, including Moshekwa Langa, Neo Matloga, Robin Rhode, Viviane Sassen, and Thato Toeba, alongside newly announced participants Pieter Hugo, Berend Strik, and Bai Cian-Yu.
The Concept: A Visual ‘Broken Telephone’
The title, Whispers Down the Alley, references the childhood game where a whispered message is passed through a line of people, arriving at the end significantly altered. In this curatorial framework, the “message” is the artwork itself. As viewers move through the space, they are encouraged to see how one piece responds to the next—carrying forward a specific form or emotion while subtly shifting its intent.
Ten Kate and the STEVENSON team suggest that these “distortions” are not failures of communication. Instead, they represent the fertile ground of human interaction. The exhibition examines:
- The Power of Recognition: How we latch onto familiar symbols to find common ground.
- The Weight of the Unknown: How strangeness can create a necessary distance or even “resistance.”
- The Geometry of Dialogue: How forms and ideas can echo or clash depending on their proximity.
Spotlight on the Works
Two central works anchor the exhibition’s inquiry into memory and the archives of human experience.
Moshekwa Langa’s Ntotoke (2020-3)
Langa, a South African artist based in Amsterdam, is known for his “indexical” practice—mapping his personal history through abstract and dreamlike compositions. Ntotoke utilizes a complex layering of Indian ink, acrylic, and iridescent pigments. The work acts as a visual map of the “untranslatable,” capturing feelings and psychological borders that language often fails to describe.
Thato Toeba’s Man on Fire (2017)
Toeba, who balances a career as a lawyer with her artistic practice, uses collage to interrogate legal and historical archives. Man on Fire is a harrowing yet poetic reference to the 2008 xenophobic violence in Johannesburg. By recontextualizing archival imagery, Toeba challenges the viewer to look beyond the “objective” surface of history to find the marginalized figures buried beneath.
The Ethics of Looking
At its core, Whispers Down the Alley is a call for “attentive looking” and “open listening.” The curators pose a challenging question to the Amsterdam public: What happens to a connection when it cannot be grasped at once? By bringing together artists like Viviane Sassen, whose surrealist photography often obscures the human form, and Robin Rhode, who uses street walls as canvases for narrative play, the exhibition forces a confrontation with the “strange.” It suggests that the moments where we fail to understand one another are just as revealing as the moments where we succeed, exposing our underlying anxieties and expectations.
Exhibition Details
- Venue: STEVENSON Amsterdam, Prinsengracht 371B
- Dates: January 16 – March 7, 2026
- Opening Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 10am – 6pm
