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Peter Abrahams
Visual Art and Photography


Peter Abrahams studied Architecture for one year at the University of Liverpool before training in London as a painter and printmaker at Camberwell School of Art, the Royal Academy Schools and Central St Martins College of Art and Design.

Image visualisation through process-based techniques, printmaking and quasi-technological means has been integral to the formation of all Abrahams’ visual languages since 1988.

Photography was first encouraged as a tool of social and formal analysis in the School of Architecture at Liverpool and subsequently Abrahams used the camera as an independent instrument alongside work in painting, drawing and printmaking. Photography came to play an increasing role in his production and since 2002 it has been his principal medium.

Major bodies of photographic work are The Active And Contemplative Life, an association of street images in diptych format which problematise the relationship between stillness and movement, present and continuous time, and Illuminations, a sequence of studio-based, still-life images.

Peter Abrahams is also known as a skilled practitioner in the photographic documentation of paintings, three-dimensional works of art, and gallery and studio installations.


His work is in the following collections:


The British Museum
Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester
British Arts Centre, Buenos Aires
British Land
London School of Economics
University of Keele
Royal London Hospital
London Borough of Brent
One Aldwych


Solo Exhibitions
2010 Mute, photographic work, m2 Gallery, London
2009 Double-Space, photographic work, Eagle Gallery, London
1999 Glimpses East, photographs, Royal London Hospital
1999 Colour Monotypes, British Arts Centre, Buenos Aires
1991 Painting and graphic work, Morley Gallery, London
1988 Painting and graphic work, Creaser Gallery, London
1987 Painting and graphic work, Hanover Gallery, Liverpool
1985 Works on paper, Galería Propuestas, Asunción, Paraguay


Selected Group Exhibitions
2011 Quadruple Energy, 4 x m2 Gallery, Rootstein Hopkins Parade Ground, London
2010 Royal Academy Summer Show, London
2010 London Original Print Fair, Eagle Gallery, Royal Academy, London
2009 Concerning Matter, Collyer Bristow Gallery, London
2009 Northern Print Biennale, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
2008 Eagle Artists: Part One, Eagle Gallery, London
2008 Royal Academy Summer Show, London
2008 London Original Print Fair, Eagle Gallery, Royal Academy, London
2006 New Editions, Eagle Gallery, London
2005 Space Open Exhibition, Triangle Gallery, London
2005 In Focus, Eagle Gallery, London
2002 Art Futures, Contemporary Art Society, City of London School
2000 Drawings, Sarah Myerscough Fine Art at Reid Minty, London
2001 First Impressions: Printmaking Techniques and the Market for Art, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
2000 Beneath the Surface, Sarah Myerscough Fine Art, London
2000 Arte Contemporanea a Torino, James Colman Fine Art,
1999 Peter Abrahams, Chris Baker, Basil Beattie and Thomas Gosebruch, Eagle Gallery, London
1999 Art 99, London Contemporary Art Fair, Eagle Gallery
1997 Art at 100, Drawing the Line, Hammerson PLC, London
1997 Colour Monotypes, Oxford Gallery, Oxford
1997 Visionfest 6 Sense, Triple, Senate House Gallery, University of Liverpool,
1996 Visionfest, Ainscough Gallery, Liverpool
1995 John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 19, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
1995 The London Group, Barbican Concourse Gallery, London
1993 Thirty-six New Etchings, Beardsmore Gallery, London
1993 Contemporaries II, Eagle Gallery, London
1991 Contemporary British Prints, Scarborough Art Gallery
1989 Critics Space 5, Air Gallery, London
1989 London Group, Royal College of Art
1987 Contemporary British Printmaking, World Print Gallery, San Francisco, USA
1987 London Group, Royal College of Art
1986 Whitechapel Open, Whitechapel Gallery, London
1984 London Group, Royal College of Art
1982 British Drawing, Hayward Gallery, London
1982 New Contemporaries, ICA, London
1981 London Group, Morley Gallery, London



Competitions and Awards
1999 British Council Travel Grant to exhibit at the British Arts Centre, Buenos Aires
1996 Euclid Prize, Visionfest, Liverpool
1995 Space Studios award, Esmee Fairbairn Charitable Trust, London
1990 Villiers David Foundation Award, research into pre-Hispanic visual cultures, Mexico
1983 British Institution Fund Award, research in Rome
1982 Richard Ford Award, research in Spanish painting, Museo del Prado, Spain
1981 Aidan Threlfall Trust, research in Spanish painting


Peter Abrahams also taught as a visiting lecturer in Further and Higher Education from 1983 to 2000.