JOHNNY ABRAHAMS

‘ERE I SAW ELBA

EXHIBITION DATES:
SEPTEMBER 11 - OCTOBER 25, 2025

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Romer Young Gallery is pleased to present its fourth solo exhibition with London based artist Johnny Abrahams. ‘ere I saw Elba features two series of paintings, divergent compositionally and chromatically, but unified in their use of formalism as a reality organizing principle emphasizing the elemental concerns of color, line, texture, and form over narrative. There will be an opening reception on Thursday, September 11th from 6-8pm.

Abrahams’ paintings present a visual language of restraint that is charged with infinite possibilities. While reading Werner Herzog’s ‘The Twilight World’ on a recent trip to Japan, Abrahams became fascinated with the filmmaker’s musings about the ephemerality of the present moment. Where does it start and where does it end? Does it exist at all or is the present moment simply a product of the way consciousness distorts time into its linear form? Ultimately for the artist, ‘painting is a state in which thought dissolves into action, the self momentarily disappears, and the sublime is accessed through making rather than reasoning.’

Much of the energy in Abrahams’ paintings can be experienced in the collision of their precision with their tolerance for play. The new series of diptychs was created in an elusive effort to capture and represent time in a painting. One panel represents the past, the other the future, with the compositional break at the center representing the present moment. In these paintings, the absence rather than the presence is what generates the composition. And with his vivid underpainting peaking through the rough hessian, this new series is a thoughtful meditation on underlying potential.

The large monolith paintings distill painting to its essential qualities of space, color, and form. Composed of thick impasto paint, the extruded paint surface has a tactile presence that imbues the compositions with immediacy. Architectural, black abutting shapes fit together, the edges of which lean into, cleave together and apart, and leave a visible void in between. Cracks of light rise from the base of the painting and drop from the top. These splinters of light create a break in the painting, a moment between negative and positive space, visible and obscure, still and in motion. 

In both series, the willful interruption that occurs in the vibrating empty spaces is what invites an active meditation, challenging the viewer to question and reflect on the idea of all things being interwoven, without beginning and without end.

For additional information, please contact the gallery at 415.550.7483 or email joey@romeryounggallery.com.