Artist Profile: Chris Abrahams

The vigorous lines and forms that characterise the work of Brisbane-based artist Chris Abrahams are instinctual, coming from a space of self-reflection. They move swiftly across canvas, paper and plate, and run deep into clay. This intuition, when it comes to mark-making, is borne of a lifetime of artmaking and a practice that has spanned over 40 years.

Abrahams found expression in art at a young age, seated at his grandmother’s table. The artist remembers how at five, she provided him with an abundance of age-appropriate materials – from crayons to textas – and from this simple beginning a life-long passion was born. “She taught me how to write,” the artist jokes, “but art was instinctive.”

This animus has led the artist across the continent and abroad, visiting and exhibiting in Cambodia, Myanmar and Japan, with a future trip planned for China. It has also pushed him through an undergraduate degree, a master’s degree and now a doctorate in the Creative Arts, adding a scholarly and intellective bend to his interrogations of self.

The work of Abrahams is visceral, brutal and raw, conveying an essential truth through the form of the self-portrait. The artist has long been fascinated with the articulation of self and has rendered his own likeness time and time again in a medley of different mediums and styles.

The artist will spend time each day working in drawing, then paint, then etching, then ceramics – and in that order. With each medium, he finds new ways to express himself through the act of portraying himself. The end results are remarkably varied, determined by mood and medium.

His works on canvas are gestural, the choppy swathes of colour acquiring a sense of urgency through the emphatic application of paint. Often, the hazy remnants of a face are barely discernible among the debris of happiness, grief and passion. His etchings and drawings are equally confident in treatment, commemorating the gesture of the artist. Abrahams’ work in clay translates this into a third dimension, the artist’s hands directly forging his vision in physical form without the intermediary of pen or brush. The artist is especially interested in the act of scratching back in his current works, revealing layers hidden within.

Abrahams’ works can feel confronting at times, with his audience directly challenged with the authenticity the artist maintains in his practice. “I want my viewers to experience felt qualities of my work and to look beyond the ‘ugliness’ that might be the first impression.” Abrahams is unafraid to express himself through his work, with beauty coming directly from a place of vulnerability.

Above: Artist Chris Abrahams with Fragmented Self. Photos: David Martinelli. Courtesy: the artist.