CATHY ABRAHAM
(b. 1968, Cape Town, South Africa)

Cathy Abraham works in film, mixed media, installation, painting and sculpture, though her choice of media is primarily informed by her subject matter.

Abraham’s practice is deeply influenced by artists from the Korean Dansaekhwa movement, along with the repetitive incantations of artists such as Roman Opalka and Agnes Martin, among others. Abraham works systematically with repetitive gestures as a way of thinking through the patterns and experiences that mark our daily existence. The highly developed surfaces of her work consider boundaries between reality, fantasy and illusion.

Abraham completed her MFA with distinction in 2018 at Michaelis School of Fine Arts, University of Cape Town. She continues to live and work in Cape Town.

I count brush marks as a form of meditation, allowing the mark of the brush to leave a visual trace as ghosts do. The “ghostings” are composed from an overlapping series of brushmarks. At first laden with paint the brush begins to make its mark yet through the sequence of strokes, its colour diminishes until there is only an unstable, fragmented residue. I cannot be sure what residues haunt and inspire me, as there are so many events I would like to forget, yet I remain aware of these experiences and their after-effects. By repeatedly drawing or painting the seemingly same mark, I am hoping to find expression for the inexpressible, bringing into existence that which is intangible yet felt.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024
A Sacred Matter, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
A shifted season, with Untitled Art, FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, SA

2023
The Fallen Sparks of Tohu, with Locus Projects, Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair, Istanbul, Turkey

Yielding to the Shadow, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with IBI Art Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2022
22 Pathways, Cubicle Series, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2021
9 Spaces: The abyss of deep time, The Fourth, Cape Town, South Africa
Featured artist Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa

2019
A Deeper Kind of Nothing, Gallery at Glen Carlou, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2018
A Deeper Kind of Nothing, Michaelis Galleries, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

2013
Undying Entanglement, South African Jewish Museum, Cape Town, South Africa

2012
Trace, In Toto Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2011
Essence, The White House, Plettenberg Bay, South Africa

2010
Memory Stains, IBI Art Alliance Francaise, Johannesburg, South Africa

2009
Stripped, IBI Art Alliance Francaise, Johannesburg, South Africa

2008
Naked, Joao Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Locus Projects, Cape Town, South Africa
RMB Latitudes Art Fair, with Reservoir Projects, Johannesburg, South Africa
Motherhood, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Winter 24/25, Everard Read, London, UK

2024
Artissima International Contemporary Art Fair, with Whatiftheworld, Turin, Italy
RMB Latitudes Art Fair with Reservoir projects, Johannesburg, South Africa
Winter Collection, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
110 Year Anniversary Exhibition, Everard Read, London, UK
Southern Light, Everard Read, London, UK

2023
What I Feel When I Think About The Cosmos, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Summer, Everard Read, London, UK
September Collection, Everard Read, London, UK

2022
Seduction, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2019
Conversations with Irma, Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa

2015
Art/Out of the Ordinary, curated by Marilyn Martin, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa

2014
Seeking Eden, curated by Margie Murgatroyd, Casa Labia, Cape Town, South Africa

2013
My Mother’s Garden, Arts on Main, Johannesburg, South Africa
In Good Company, curated by Michael Chandler, Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa

2011
Domestic Departures, The Forge, Cape Town, South Africa

PRESS & PUBLICATIONS
Speakes, O. 2020. Breathing Space: Cathy Abraham’s A Deeper Kind of Nothing. Artthrob https://artthrob.co.za/2020/01/07/breathing-space-cathy-abrahams-a-deeper-kind-of-nothing/

Cape Talk Radio interview with Pippa Hudson http://www.capetalk.co.za/podcasts/127/afternoons-with-pippa-hudson/254287/on-the-couch-cathy-abraham-responds-to-gender-based-violence-with-visual-art

Jolly, L. 2013. Complete Immersion: Honouring opposite but entangled forces of feminism through art. Cape Times. 2 October: 11.
Teaching 2017 – 2018 assisted Virginia Mackenny professor of painting at Michaelis School of Fine Art, UCT