CATHY ABRAHAM

(b. 1968, South Africa. Lives and works in Cape Town)

Cathy Abraham specialised in process-based art at the Michaelis School of Fine Arts, University of Cape Town, where she graduated with an MFA (with Distinction) in 2018. Abraham’s creative work is deeply rooted in a ritual based practice. She works in film, mixed media, installation, painting and sculpture though her choice of media is primarily informed by her subject matter.

Abraham works systematically with repetitive gestures as a way of thinking through the patterns that mark our daily existence. The developed surfaces of her works consider boundaries between reality, fantasy and illusion.

She refers to the repeated brushstrokes in her paintings and drawings as ‘ghosts’. A metaphor for the spectre of trauma and its haunting of memory. These ‘ghosts’ are counted and numbered with reference to the Kabbalah.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS & ART FAIRS

2023 The fallen sparks of Tohu, Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair, Istanbul TR (IBI Art Gallery) 2023 Here, the ghost is me, Kaselhom SE (The Fourth)
2023 Yielding to the shadow, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town SA (IBI Art Gallery) 2022 22 Pathways, Cape Town SA (Everard Read)

2022 The Weight of the Soul, Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg SA (IBI Art Gallery)
2021 The Abyss of Deep Time, Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg SA (IBI Art Gallery)
2021 The Abyss of Deep Time, Cape Town SA (The Fourth)
2019 A Deeper Kind of Nothing and The Monument, Franschhoek SA (Gallery Glen Carlou) 2018 A Deeper Kind of Nothing, Cape Town SA (Michaelis Galleries, University of Cape Town) 2013 Undying Entanglement, Cape Town SA (South African Jewish Museum)

2012 Trace, Johannesburg SA (Toto Gallery)
2011 Essence, Plettenberg Bay SA (The White House)
2010 Memory Stains, Johannesburg SA (IBI Art Gallery, Alliance Francaise) 2009 Stripped, Johannesburg SA (IBI Art Gallery, Alliance Francaise)

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023 How I feel when I think about the Cosmos, Franschhoek SA (Everard Read) 2023 Summer Show, London UK (Everard Read)
2023 Winter Show, Cape Town SA (Everard Read)
2023 Optimal Vibration, Johannesburg SA, (Graham Contemporary)

2022 Fabrication, Cape Town SA (State of the Art Gallery)
2022 Reshape 22, Latitudes (Online, curated by Nina Carew)
2021 A line beyond, Cape Town SA (AVA Gallery, curated by Olga Speakes)
2021 House Party, Cape Town SA (The Fourth)
2021 Winter show, Johannesburg, SA (Gallery Gallery)
2019 Conversations with Irma, Cape Town SA (Irma Stern Museum, curated by Christopher Peter) 2016 The Shape of Nothing, Cape Town SA (Michaelis Galleries, University of Cape Town)
2016 The Spirit of Stern, Cape Town SA (Irma Stern Museum, curated by Michael Chandler)
2016 The Space Between, Cape Town SA (South African Jewish Museum, curated by Mari Macdonald) 2015 Art/Out of the Ordinary, Cape Town SA (AVA, curated by Marilyn Martin)
2015 Art on Paper VI, Cape Town SA (Kalk Bay Modern, curated by Cheryl Rumbak)
2014 Seeking Eden, Cape Town SA (Casa Labia, curated by Margie Murgatroyd)
2013 My Mother’s Garden, Johannesburg SA (Arts on Main)
2013 In Good Company, Cape Town SA (Irma Stern Museum, curated by Michael Chandler)
2011 Domestic Departures, Cape Town SA (The Forge)
2009 The Great South African Nude, Johannesburg SA (Everard Read)
2009 Spring Art Fair, Stellenbosch SA (SMAC)
2008 Naked, Cape Town SA (Joao Ferreira Gallery)

PRESS & PUBLICATIONS

Leana Shuman 2021 Hauntingly beautiful https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/sunday+times+/ FMfcgzGmvnzRnhzsXmklBwqsmZlVdlzk?projector=1&messagePartId=0.1

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.

EDUCATION

2017-2018 MFA (Cum Laude), Michaelis School of Art, UCT
2016 Post Graduate Diploma in Fine Art, Michaelis School of Art, UCT 1991 BA Economic History, UCT