Paula Anta and Cassian Robbertze come together for a new exhibition exploring the increasingly blurred boundaries between nature, technology and the human experience.
This September, Artyli Gallery, in partnership with Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Johannesburg, will present Mirrored Futures, bringing together the photographic work of Spanish artist Paula Anta and the sculptural practice of South African artist Cassian Robbertze.
Curated by Dr Ashraf Jamal, the exhibition explores a question that feels increasingly urgent: what does it mean to be human in a world where nature, technology and identity are becoming ever more intertwined?
At first, Anta and Robbertze appear to occupy very different creative worlds.
Anta turns her attention towards nature. Her intricate photographic compositions examine vegetal forms, networks and patterns, revealing connections that extend from the microscopic structures within the human body to the larger systems of the natural environment. Presented against luminous gold leaf, her works take on an almost sacred quality, transforming botanical structures into something contemplative and otherworldly.
Robbertze, meanwhile, looks towards technology and the human form. Moving between digital creation, traditional sculptural processes and bronze, his figures investigate the increasingly complicated relationship between humans and machines. His work asks where the boundaries between the physical body, technology and imagined futures might ultimately lie.
It is precisely within the tension between these two practices that Mirrored Futures finds its identity.
Nature and technology. The organic and the constructed. The digital and the physical. Ancient materials and contemporary processes.
The exhibition considers a world in which these distinctions are becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.
As curator Ashraf Jamal writes, Anta and Robbertze offer “two visions, one world”, bringing together ideas of catastrophe and hope while questioning how humanity might understand itself within an increasingly synthetic and interconnected environment.
The setting adds another dimension to the exhibition.
Presented at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Johannesburg in Melrose Arch, Mirrored Futures places contemporary art within an environment already defined by exceptional craftsmanship, technological innovation and an obsession with material detail.
Bronze, photography, gold leaf, digital processes and automotive design consequently enter into an unexpected dialogue.
For collectors and art enthusiasts, the timing is particularly interesting. The exhibition opens on the same weekend as FNB Art Joburg, making it part of a wider Johannesburg art weekend that brings galleries, collectors, artists and cultural institutions together across the city.
Rather than simply presenting two artists side by side, Mirrored Futures proposes a conversation between different ways of imagining the future — one rooted in the natural world, the other looking towards technology and the evolving human form.
And perhaps that is where the title becomes most revealing.
A mirrored future is not necessarily a prediction of what is to come. It may instead be a reflection of who we are becoming.
MIRRORED FUTURES
Artists: Paula Anta & Cassian Robbertze
Curated by: Dr Ashraf Jamal
Opening: Saturday, 5 September 2026 | 10:00–14:00
Exhibition: 5–30 September 2026
Venue: Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Johannesburg, Melrose Arch
Presented by: Artyli Gallery in partnership with Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Johannesburg
Editorial note: This is exactly the kind of story I would put under ARTS & CULTURE on Grandiose. It also gives us a natural opportunity to build a relationship with Artyli Gallery, Rolls-Royce Johannesburg, Paula Anta and Cassian Robbertze rather than simply publishing an event notice.
