Cassian Robbertze (b. 1997, Cape Town) is a contemporary South African sculptor working between Cape Town and Johannesburg. His practice brings together traditional sculptural processes, bronze casting, digital modelling and additive manufacturing to explore the increasingly complex relationship between humanity, technology, faith, history and identity.
Robbertze completed his BA in Fine Art with Distinction in Studio Work at the University of Cape Town in 2021, studying at the Michaelis School of Fine Art under the supervision of acclaimed South African sculptor Professor Jane Alexander. His technical foundations were established through earlier international teaching experience and apprenticeships, including working as an assistant sculptor to Jean Doyle, where he contributed to major public monuments in Malawi and the Seychelles.
His practice expanded significantly through his engagement with digital sculpture and 3D printing. Rather than treating technology and traditional making as opposing disciplines, Robbertze moves fluidly between them. Digital modelling, 3D printing, mould-making, casting and the physical manipulation of material become interconnected stages in the creation of his sculptures.
His current body of work imagines a distant future in which the technologies and innovations of our present have crumbled into mythologised relics. His figurative sculptures carry echoes of Classical Greek and Renaissance traditions, yet these familiar forms are disrupted, fragmented and fused with technological elements. The result is a distinctly post-classical language through which Robbertze considers what technology may ultimately mean for human identity, belief and our understanding of ourselves.
Central to his thinking is the provocative idea of technology as a form of religious artefact. Science and faith are not positioned as opposites; instead, Robbertze considers both as expressions of humanity's persistent desire to understand, invent and transcend its limitations. Works including Abdication of Identity, I Grow Numb and The Artificial Prophet inhabit this uncertain territory between the human and the technological, asking what happens when the boundaries separating the two begin to disappear.
Robbertze's work forms part of the permanent collection of the Oliewenhuis Art Museum, acquired through the Art Bank of South Africa under the auspices of the National Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. His exhibition history includes Latitudes Art Fair, Artyli Gallery and North-West University Gallery.
He was selected for the ArtLabs Mentorship Fellowship in 2021 and 2023, working under the mentorship of Dr Willie Bester, Ronald Muchatuta and Bonolo Kavula, and was selected for the Art Bank of South Africa's PESP3 programme in 2023, working under the mentorship of Niel Jonker. He was also part of the First Thursdays Emerging Artists Programme at the SA Sendinggestig Museum from 2023–2024.
Alongside his studio practice, Robbertze is Creative Director at Amnova Tech, where he oversees creative applications of additive manufacturing and fabrication for the arts. Since 2022, he has also lectured part-time in mould-making and computer-aided design at UCT's Michaelis School of Fine Art.
His relationship with Mary Sibande has been particularly significant. From 2021 to 2023, he worked as an assistant sculptor in Sibande's studio, contributing to the precision production of her large-scale sculptural installations. In 2026, in collaboration with Sibande's Occupying the Gallery, Robbertze facilitated an intensive mould-making and relief sculpture masterclass for seventeen emerging artists, culminating in their presentation at Latitudes Art Fair.
Through this unusual combination of classical sculptural knowledge, digital innovation and philosophical enquiry, Robbertze's work speaks directly to the present moment. His sculptures do not simply ask what technology can do, but rather what technology is doing to us, and what it may ultimately mean to be human in the world we are creating.
Cassian Robbertze's work is presented in MIRRORED FUTURES, alongside Spanish photographic artist Dr. Paula Anta, curated by Ashraf Jamal in collaboration with Artyli Gallery.
Please click on documents for an essay on Mirrored Futures by Dr. Ashraf Jamal, as well as Cassian Robbertze`s CV.