CONTROL +Z
In collaboration with
6 August – 16 September 2026
Drawing together voices from across the African continent, Christopher Moller Gallery’s presentation reflects its longstanding commitment to fostering a broader Pan-African dialogue within contemporary art. Control + Z brings together artists whose practices are shaped by diverse histories, cultural traditions, and lived experiences, offering nuanced perspectives on the emotional, social, and environmental shifts defining contemporary life today.
Responding to this year's HEAT Festival theme, the exhibition turns away from spectacle in favour of quieter, deeply resonant human experiences. Set within the intimate environment of the gallery, Control + Z invites a slower, more contemplative engagement with contemporary African art - one centred on atmosphere, materiality, storytelling, and human connection.
The exhibition explores the growing tension between modern consumer culture and the enduring human need for memory, community, spirituality, and our relationship with the natural world. In an era increasingly shaped by acceleration, digital saturation, and consumption, Control + Z asks what values, rituals, and relationships remain essential, and what we might choose to reclaim or preserve.
Through painting, sculpture, and mixed-media practices, the participating artists reflect on themes of heritage, identity, family, urbanisation, and humanity's evolving place within an ever-changing world. Rather than proposing a nostalgic return to the past, the exhibition considers how tradition and modernity might coexist, suggesting that progress need not come at the expense of our shared humanity.
At its core, Control + Z offers a space for pause and reflection, inviting audiences to reconsider what it means to remain human in an increasingly accelerated age.
Participating Artists:
Annamieke Engelbrecht
Chris Denovan
Chelsea Young