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

Cathy Abraham specialised in process-based art at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, where she earned a Post Graduate Diploma in 2016 and a Master’s in Fine Art in 2018. Her work is included in the IZIKO South African National Gallery Collection, the Rupert Collection, the Spier Art Collection in South Africa as well as the Kilbourne collection in South Africa.

“My practice is deeply rooted in repetition as a material prayer. Invoking transformation and healing, these prayers address past sufferings that continue to haunt the present. Appearing as shadows in the overlapping ‘ghosts’ of colliding brushstrokes, such hauntings give form to otherwise formless traumas, the apparitions tracing the wound in its residue. My unfolding engagement with numbers, symmetries, and ritual action is meditative and devotional, a means of transcending the self towards an understanding of the interconnected, miraculous nature of all beings.” Cathy Abraham, 2025

In 2025 Abraham presented a solo exhibition, A Sacred Matter, at Everard Read, Franschoek, South Africa. Further solo presentations include: A Shifted Season, presented by Untitled at FNB Art Joburg, Johannesburg, South Africa in 2024; The Fallen Sparks of Tohu, with IBI Art at Contemporary Istanbul, Turkey; Yielding to the Shadow, with IBI Art at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, South Africa, both in in 2023; 22 Pathways at Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa in 2022; Spaces: The Abyss of Deep Time, at The Fourth, Cape Town, South Africa in 2021; A Deeper Kind of Nothing and The Monument at Glen Carlou, Franschoek, South African in 2019.

Selected group presentations include: Investec Cape Town Art Fair with Locus Projects in 2025; RMB Latitudes presented by RESERVOIR, Johannesburg, South Africa in 2024; What I feel when I think about the cosmos at Everard Read Franschoek, South Africa in 2023; Seduction at Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa in 2022; Conversations with Irma at Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa in 2019.

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

2025
A Sacred Matter, Everard Read, London, UK
A Sacred Matter, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
Solo booth with Reservoir Projects, Spark Art Fair, Vienna

2024
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