CATHY ABRAHAM
(b.1968, South Africa, Lives and work in Cape Town)
Cathy Abraham’s work brings together seemingly disparate entities through a ritual-based practice. The psychological, the spiritual and the ecological. While she has used a range of mediums reflecting her subject matters, including film, installation and sculpture, Abraham currently focuses on repetitive processes in abstract painting and drawing. She works systematically, counting brushstrokes using numbers from Kabbalah as a way to unlock meaning and open up new understandings of the everyday.
Abraham specialised in process-based art at the Michaelis School of Fine Arts, University of Cape Town, where she graduated with a Master’s in Fine Art with Distinction in 2018.
Much of my work is spatiotemporal, meaning that it belongs to both time and space. Time in that it is allegorical, lamenting past traumas or occurrences; and space in that these ungraspable yet palpable forces continue to occupy tangible physical and emotional space in the present. I see this as a sensuous entanglement of existence simultaneously forming a visible metaphor for life in all its ungraspable transcendence.
Cathy Abraham’s work brings together seemingly disparate entities through a ritual-based practice. The psychological, the spiritual and the ecological. While she has used a range of mediums reflecting her subject matters, including film, installation and sculpture, Abraham currently focuses on repetitive processes in abstract painting and drawing. She works systematically, counting brushstrokes using numbers from Kabbalah as a way to unlock meaning and open up new understandings of the everyday.
Abraham specialised in process-based art at the Michaelis School of Fine Arts, University of Cape Town, where she graduated with a Master’s in Fine Art with Distinction in 2018.
Education
2018 MFA, Michaelis School of Art, SA
2016 Post Graduate Diploma in Fine Art, Michaelis School of Art, SA
1991 BA Economic History, UCT, SA
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025 A sacred matter (Everard Read, Franschhoek, SA)
2024 A shifted season (Untitled, FNB Art Joburg, Johannesburg, SA)
2023 The fallen sparks of Tohu (IBI Art, Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair, Istanbul, TR)
2023 Yielding to the shadow (IBI Art, ICTAF, Cape Town, SA, IBI Art)
2022 22 Pathways (Everard Read, Cape Town, SA)
2021 9 Spaces: The abyss of deep time (The Fourth, Cape Town, SA)
2021 Featured artist (IBI ART, Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg, SA)
2019 A Deeper Kind of Nothing and The Monument (Glen Carlou, Franschhoek, SA)
2018 A Deeper Kind of Nothing Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, SA)
2013 Undying Entanglement (South African Jewish Museum, Cape Town, SA)
2010 Memory Stains (IBI Art, Alliance Française, Johannesburg, SA)
2009 Stripped, Johannesburg (IBI Art, Alliance Francaise, Johannesburg, SA)
2008 Naked (Joao Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town, SA)
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 Artissima Contemporary Art Fair (WHATIFTHEWORLD Gallery, Turin, IT)
2024 RMB Latitudes (Reservoir, Johannesburg, SA)
2024 Winter Collection (Everard Read, Franschhoek, SA)
2023 What I feel when I think about the Cosmos (Everard Read, Franschhoek, SA)
2023 Winter (Everard Read, Cape Town, SA)
2022 Seduction (Everard Read, Cape Town, SA)
2019 Conversations with Irma (Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, SA)
2015 Art/Out of the Ordinary (AVA Gallery, Cape Town, SA)
2014 Seeking Eden (Casa Labia, Cape Town, SA)
2013 My Mother’s Garden (Arts on Main, Johannesburg, SA)
2013 In Good Company (Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, SA)
2011 Domestic Departures (The Forge, Cape Town, SA)
2018 MFA, Michaelis School of Art, SA
2016 Post Graduate Diploma in Fine Art, Michaelis School of Art, SA
1991 BA Economic History, UCT, SA
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025 A sacred matter (Everard Read, Franschhoek, SA)
2024 A shifted season (Untitled, FNB Art Joburg, Johannesburg, SA)
2023 The fallen sparks of Tohu (IBI Art, Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair, Istanbul, TR)
2023 Yielding to the shadow (IBI Art, ICTAF, Cape Town, SA, IBI Art)
2022 22 Pathways (Everard Read, Cape Town, SA)
2021 9 Spaces: The abyss of deep time (The Fourth, Cape Town, SA)
2021 Featured artist (IBI ART, Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg, SA)
2019 A Deeper Kind of Nothing and The Monument (Glen Carlou, Franschhoek, SA)
2018 A Deeper Kind of Nothing Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, SA)
2013 Undying Entanglement (South African Jewish Museum, Cape Town, SA)
2010 Memory Stains (IBI Art, Alliance Française, Johannesburg, SA)
2009 Stripped, Johannesburg (IBI Art, Alliance Francaise, Johannesburg, SA)
2008 Naked (Joao Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town, SA)
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 Artissima Contemporary Art Fair (WHATIFTHEWORLD Gallery, Turin, IT)
2024 RMB Latitudes (Reservoir, Johannesburg, SA)
2024 Winter Collection (Everard Read, Franschhoek, SA)
2023 What I feel when I think about the Cosmos (Everard Read, Franschhoek, SA)
2023 Winter (Everard Read, Cape Town, SA)
2022 Seduction (Everard Read, Cape Town, SA)
2019 Conversations with Irma (Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, SA)
2015 Art/Out of the Ordinary (AVA Gallery, Cape Town, SA)
2014 Seeking Eden (Casa Labia, Cape Town, SA)
2013 My Mother’s Garden (Arts on Main, Johannesburg, SA)
2013 In Good Company (Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, SA)
2011 Domestic Departures (The Forge, Cape Town, SA)