Visual exhibition with a powerful meaning

Omba Gallery will be exhibiting Leonard Abraham 'Under Threat' art as of today. The word threat is defined as the identification or perception of someone or something likely to cause harm, damage or is dangerous, and this is exactly how Leonard Abrahams views the objects in his paintings. A lion and its cub, the beautiful Christuskirche in Windhoek as a symbol of Christianity, cattle carrying the burdens of human survival and civilisation, a lone San man, his feet disappearing into clouds of dust, and so on. “Everything is under threat,” he says, with a smile. “So are we, even as we live”.Through the visual presentation of images on canvas, most of them familiar to Namibians, Abrahams also expresses his Namibian aesthetic values and that which he strongly feels deserves protection; his concerns for the environment, a light touch on politics, the well-being of people and their lifestyles. His works are literal representations with subtle messages, not abstract, nor ornamental, and yet, are, technically, extremely well-executed for a self-taught artist.It was the trained eye of a Roman Catholic nun at the Marianum Seminary in Stampriet, that first spotted his potential and with kind words encouraged a young Abrahams to draw. The seminary was situated in the small town of Stampriet in the Kalahari, north-east of Mariental, in the Hardap Region of southern Namibia and offered education to children in and from the surrounding areas. This was during the early 1960s when the political landscape in southern Africa was rapidly changing for the worse; a few hundred kilometres further south across the Orange River, white supremacy and apartheid South Africa were rising.Like many of his peers in that part of the country, Leonard Abrahams was typical for his milieu, culture and class. Of mixed ancestry, he was from a poor, working-class background that viewed education as a privilege and the only means of escaping a lifetime of poverty. So it came about that when Leonard Abrahams left high school, the pathways to employment and financial independence in an increasingly militarised Namibia under apartheid South Africa, were limited to the major professions: law, medicine, teaching and nursing. The idea of studying art was eliminated by the pressing and immediate needs of an extended family and finally, abandoned. In 1981 he was accepted at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) to study for a Bachelor's degree with law subjects. Upon graduation in 1985, and feeling disillusioned with the legal profession at the time, he opted to further his studies in the practical field of accounting, and for the next couple of years, worked as an accountant for various companies in the capital city of Windhoek. Since 2004, Leonard ventured into the transport logistics sector, in which he still operates to this day.Under Threat at Omba Gallery is the first public exhibition of the works of self-taught Namibian artist, Leonard Abrahams.Staff Reporter

Visual exhibition with a powerful meaning

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-07

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Visual exhibition with a powerful meaning

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-07

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