Johannesburg – This September, Artyli Gallery, in partnership with Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Johannesburg, invites you to experience Mirrored Futures, bringing together the extraordinary photographic works of Spanish artist Paula Anta and the sculptural practice of South African artist Cassian Robbertze.
Curated by Dr Ashraf Jamal, acclaimed author, cultural theorist, educator and Senior Research Associate at VIAD, who will also open the exhibition, Mirrored Futures asks a question that feels increasingly relevant: what does it mean to be human in a world where nature, technology and identity are becoming ever more intertwined?
“Two visions, one world,” explains Ashraf Jamal of Mirrored Futures.
“Understanding how Cassian Robbertze and Paula Anta converged is to understand the nexus of catastrophe and hope which, indissolubly, binds all of us.
“Ours is a plastic present, a plastic future.
“We are all ‘plastiglomerates’, amalgams of organic and inorganic matter.”
Jamal adds, “Knowing this is the sum not only of our demise, our fatality, but also, wondrously, the means through which to grasp the ever-evolving understanding of what it means to be human, and belong to an intra-species realm in which the synthetic, vegetal, animal, psychological, political and spiritual are reconciled.”
At first, Anta and Robbertze appear to occupy very different worlds
Anta turns towards nature.
Her intricate vegetal forms reveal networks, rhythms and connections that reach from the microscopic structures within us to the vast systems of the natural world.
Presented against luminous gold leaf, her photographic works possess an almost sacred quality, radiant, intricate and quietly powerful.
Robbertze turns towards technology and the human form.
Moving between digital creation, traditional sculptural processes and bronze, his figures question the boundaries between human and machine, while considering what technology has become to us, and what it might mean to us in the future.
It is precisely in the space between these two practices that Mirrored Futures becomes so compelling.
Nature and technology.
The organic and constructed. The digital and physical. Ancient materials and contemporary processes.
Both artists explore a world in which these boundaries are no longer easily separated.
There could hardly be a more fitting setting for this conversation than Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg.
Within a space synonymous with exceptional craftsmanship and innovation, another dialogue emerges, between bronze and gold leaf, technology and the handmade, precision and imagination.
It is an opportunity to experience contemporary art within an environment where material, design and human ingenuity are themselves deeply valued.
Opening over the same weekend as FNB Art Joburg, Mirrored Futures offers collectors and art lovers another compelling destination during one of Johannesburg’s most exciting art weekends.
Come and experience Mirrored Futures, two remarkable artists, two distinct practices, and a shared reflection on the world we inhabit and the futures we are creating.
Opening
Saturday, 5 September 2026
10:00 – 14:00
Exhibition
5–30 September 2026
VENUE
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Johannesburg
Melrose Arch, Johannesburg
SPACE IS LIMITED, PLEASE RSVP HERE
