Johnny Abrahams | Honey in the hay, hail in the heather
11th july - 10th September 2025
Encounter is pleased to announce 'Honey in the hay, hail in the heather', Johnny Abrahams' (b.1979) inaugural exhibition with the gallery and in Portugal. The artist's abstract paintings initially present as minimal explorations of form and color, yet upon closer inspection, a haptic depth emerges through their tactile materiality. Abrahams' use of raw hessian as sensory ground, the enigmatic texture of his layered oil paint and the subtle flows created through rhythmic use of a palette knife all invite careful contemplation. In this collection of works, a chorus of subtle idiosyncrasies and painterly traces merge in captivating oscillations that bring these refined paintings to life.
For this exhibition, Abrahams has produced a considered collection of recent paintings expanding on diverse series essential to his practice. In these meditative compositions the artist works through issues of temporality and touch through an elemental and characteristically formal language. Playfully opening new spaces for reflection, at the core of this show is a poetic questioning of how time might be represented in painterly form. Moments of happening are held in liminal gaps and residues of ideas seep through multiple substrates. For Abrahams, what is left unsaid becomes as important as what is said. His paintings hum with a vital understanding that the quiet spaces between marks can make as authoritative a statement as the painterly gestures in themselves.
The exhibition opens on Thursday 10th of July and runs until September 10th.
For more information please contact info@encountercontemporary.com
Planning your Visit
Encounter, Rua de São Bernardo 15, R/C, 1200-823, Estrela, Lisboa
Wednesday - Saturday 12 - 7pm and by appointment
Johnny Abrahams
Johnny Abrahams work is included in important public and private collections internationally including; Pérez Art Museum (Miami), Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum (Madrid), Museum of Contemporary Art (Busan), Park Seo Bo Foundation (Seoul), Dalloul Art Foundation (Beirut), Farjam Foundation (Dubai).
Selected Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions include: 'Honey in the hay, hail in the heather', Encounter, Lisbon (2025), ‘24 Colors for Junichi’, MAKI Gallery, Tokyo (2024) ‘Sympatheia', Vigo Gallery, London (2024), ‘Therapy Apple’, Vigo Gallery, London (2023),‘Will it get some wind for the sails,’ Sunday-S Gallery, Copenhagen (2023), ‘Dog’s Dinner’, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, NY (2023), Primaries, Romer Young Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2022),‘the natural solace of labor’, Sunday-S Gallery, Copenhagen (2022),‘You & I Are Earth’, 1661, Vigo Gallery, London (2022),‘The very color of welcome’, Sunday-S Gallery, Copenhagen (2022), ‘Liths’, Choi and Lager, Seoul (2021), ‘Two-person exhibition with Otis Jones’, Sunday-S Gallery, Copenhagen (2021), ‘After Hyacinth, After Anemone’, Vigo Gallery, London (2021),‘Red weakens an hour’, Jack Hanley Gallery, East Hampton, NY (2021), ‘Two-person exhibition with Bosco Sodi’, Sunday-S Gallery, Copenhagen (2021), ‘In the divinely human state of nobodiness’, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, NY (2021),‘A Sprint for the Idler’, Romer Young Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2021), ‘Archaic torso of Apollo’, Sunday-S Gallery, Copenhagen (2020),‘The Hare Beneath the Harrow’, Romer Young Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2020),‘Making Flowers Alive’, Choi and Lager, Cologne (2020),‘The Dark Side / The Bright Side’, with Davide Baliano, Bjorn and Gundorph Gallery, Aarhus, Denmark (2020), ‘I am the tortoise, but also the cat and the dog’, Vigo Gallery, London (2018), ‘10 Paintings’, Choi and Lager, Seoul (2018), ‘x, y, zero’, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, NY (2015), ‘Interference Study’, Vigo Gallery, London (2013),‘Conclusion: Inconclusive’, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, NY (2013).
Selected Group Exhibitions: ‘Assembly 3’, Assembly, Monticello, NY (2024), ‘Ways of Seeing’, JARILAGER Gallery, Cologne (2022), ‘Hidden UK’, Hidden Ireland, curated by Sean Scully, Flowers Gallery, London (2022), ‘Take Up Space', Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH (2018),‘Superposition’, curated by Johnny Abrahams, Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, NY (2018), ‘Two on Two’, The Hole, New York, NY (2016), ‘Fertile Ground’, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA (2014),‘Now-ism’, Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH (2014), ‘Warp and Woof’, The Hole, New York, NY (2014).