After time spent in 17th-century Parisian churches, Abrahams developed this body of work in response to unexpected connections between his minimalist vocabulary and the architecture of sacred spaces- from Gothic cathedrals to Le Corbusier's modernist Convent of La Tourette. The title Chapterhouse references these architectural interiors, drawing a through-line between religious architecture across centuries and the structural language of his paintings.
The exhibition presents two distinct bodies of work, each engaging with different architectural traditions. A series of black monoform paintings recall the soaring verticality of Gothic spaces. These works present simple compositions featuring bold shapes interjected by subtle negative spaces that echo the columnar divisions and arched forms of cathedral naves. There is a musicality to these paintings: they convey rhythm, phasing, and cadence with unmistakable melodic character. Abrahams craves a sense of balance more than symmetry, setting up expectations of pattern before deliberately deviating, arriving at unexpected resolutions.
At the heart of these works lies a meditation on theosis- a concept articulated by St. Athanasius in the phrase “God became man so that man might become god.” The mirrored vertical forms enact this reciprocal structure: a descent and an ascent meeting in a point of convergence. That central touchpoint becomes a visual singularity, an analogue to the theological idea of Incarnation, where two complete natures meet without erasure. The texture of the black paint moves both downward and upward, suggesting divine descent mirrored by human ascent, while the negative space serves as the mediating ground that allows the union to be seen. Through geometry and texture rather than figuration, the paintings become abstract icons- visual meditations on relationality, convergence, and transformation.
Central to the exhibition is a second series of five large-scale two-tone works inspired by Le Corbusier's stained-glass windows at La Tourette. These pieces engage with modernist architectural principles, translating the luminous colour fields and horizontal divisions of the windows into painted form. The horizontal break becomes the primary compositional element, creating a dialogue between the fields above and below- a balance of light and weight, transcendence and earth.
Applied with a brush, the paint creates subtle ridges that modulate light across the surface, inviting the work to occupy a space between painting and sculpture. The tactile surfaces create a synaesthetic experience: with our eyes we can feel the paint, like earth or clay. Even as paint is disciplined into geometry, materiality humanises it, grounding the work in physical presence. Like the architecture that inspired them, these paintings create moments of contemplation through their careful orchestration of mass, void, and light.
