Cathy Abraham (b. 1968 Cape Town, South Africa) 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.”  

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 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; Seductionat Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa in 2022; Conversations with Irma at Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa in 2019.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2025 Dust from the silver spring, Artissima art fair, WHATIFTHEWORLD
2025 A Sacred Matter, Everard Read London, London, UK
2025 Solo presentation, Reservoir Projects, Spark Art Fair, Vienna
2025 A Sacred Matter, Everard Read Franschoek, Cape Town, South Africa
2024 A shifted season, Untitled Art, FNB JHB Art Fair, JHB South Africa
2023 The Fallen Sparks of Tohu, Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair, Locus, Istanbul, Turkey
2023 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
2021 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
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 A repeated refrain, duo booth with Locus, Cape Town art fair, Cape Town, South Africa
2024 Artissima International Contemporary Art Fair, Turin with Whatiftheworld gallery
2024 RMB Latitudes Art Fair with Reservoir projects, JHB, South Africa
2024 Winter Collection, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
2023 What I Feel When I Think About The Cosmos, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
2023 Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2022 Seduction, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2019 Conversations with Irma, curated by Christopher Peter, Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
2015 Art/Out of the Ordinary, curated by Marilyn Martin, Association of Visual Arts, 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
2013 In Good Company, curated by Michael Chandler, Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
2011 Domestic Departures, The Forge, Cape Town, South Africa

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS:

Portrait by STUDIO PAAR
Selected artwork & installation images by MIA THOM
Selected artwork images by MATT SLATER
Selected installation images by ANTHEA POKROY