Artist Statement
My work derives from a psychedelic involvement with nature. In this sense, it is a form of realism. I do not try to be religious, nor surrealist, nor any other form of creationist art. Instead, I try to reintegrate myself with nature and through my work hope to reintegrate others with nature. The loss of direct, somatic, and all embracing integration with nature is the largest threat to humanity
Biography
| Isaac Abrams was born and raised in New York City. He is a self-taught artist with an academic background in literature, history, science, and psychology. He went to Berlin on his honeymoon to see the Berlin Wall being built. He discovered psychedelics, He discovered psychedelics again and again, He decided there had to be such a thing as psychedelic art. He climbed a tree with Tim Leary to discuss business He founded the first gallery of Psychedelic Art in the world in 1965. He began working as a self-taught painter in the beginning of 1965. He had his first one man show in 1967. He went to California and lived on a ranch with real rock stars. He tried to invent music video in 1970. He went to Europe for a year. Became friends with the painters of the School of Fantastic Realism He began working as a sculptor in the 1970’s. He began extensive work as an animation artist in 1981. He did Raves with his son’s multi-screen interactive computer animations mixed with live-action. He has always painted. Now he is painting all the time. |
| FUTURE EXHIBITIONS | |
| 2013 | One man show – Galerie Gilles Peyroulet, Paris |
| 2013 | Drawing Now, the exhibition of contemporary drawing’ – Carrousel du Louvre, Paris |
| EXHIBITIONS | |
| 2013 | Sous influences, products psychtropic – la Maison Rouge, Paris |
| 2012 | Visionaries – QCC Art Gallery (City University of NY) |
| 2012 | The Society for Art of Imagination – Fantastic & Visionary Art, Vienna |
| 2011 | Psychedelic, Visionary and Optical Art – Telfair Museum (Spring) |
| 2010 | Psychedelic, Visionary and Optical Art – Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester |
| 2010 | Psychedelic, Visionary and Optical Art – San Antonio Museum |
| 2008 | “Sacred Art” – Haus der Kunst, Munich |
| 2008 | “Sacred Art” – Centre Pompidou, Paris |
| 2007 | “Summer of Love” – Whitney Museum, NY |
| 2006 | “Summer of Love” – Weiner Kunsthall |
| 2005 | “Summer of Love” – Schirn Kunsthall, Frankfurt |
| 2005 | “Summer of Love” – Tate Gallery, Liverpool |
| 2004 | Illustration to Curators essay – Whitney Biennial |
| 2002 | Vorpal Gallery – San Francisco, California |
| 1984 | Kampo Cultural Center – Kyoto, Japan, New Painting NY USA-Japan Cultural Exchange |
| 1982 | Graham Gallery – “New York Visionaries” New York |
| 1982 | Omni Magazine Exhibition – Space Art Chicago, Illinois |
| 1979 | Quantum Gallery – New York City |
| 1976 | Shidoni Sculpture Exhibition – Santa Fe, New Mexico |
| 1976 | Astral Landscapes, one man show – Dworkin Gallery |
| 1975 | Group Show, Visionary Art – Dworkin Gallery |
| 1972 | Galerie McGwire – Vienna, Austria |
| 1971 | Whitney Museum – New York (experimental video project) |
| 1971 | “Drawing Masters of the 20th Century” – Tate Gallery, London |
| 1971 | “New Directions” – Cologne Museum |
| 1970 | Galerie Bischofberger – Zurich, Switzerland |
| 1969 | Easthampton Gallery – New York City |
| 1968 | Galerie Bischofberger – Zurich, Switzerland |
| 1967 | Easthampton Gallery – New York City |
| 1967 | Galerie Bischofberger – Zurich, Switzerland |
| 1965 | First show of Psychedelic Art in the world – CODA Gallery, NYC (Owned by Isaac Abrams) |
| ANIMATION PROJECTS | |
| 1998-2002 | Rave Works – Free form animations, long form animations in multi-screen formats NYC |
| 1997 | Space Journey – 4-minute animation for 2nd largest Kaleidoscope in world |
| 1997 | Spring (Metamorphosis) – 12-minute computer animation for the Worlds Largest Kaleidoscope |
| 1996 | Peace on Earth – 10-minute computer animation for the Worlds Largest Kaleidoscope |
| 1995 | World’s Largest Kaleidoscope – Designed and created World’s Largest Kaleidoscope – 60 foot high with 10-minute animation |
| 1995 | Universal Theme Park Project – stop motion animation for Douglas Trumbull, creator of 2001; sculptor designer of major set for the BACK TO THE FUTURE RIDE |
| 1989 | Surprise Symphony – Hayden Animation for use in the field of Musical Education; animator & Producer |
| 1988 | Animation The Top 15 of 1750 – Baroque Studies in Motion |
| 1987 | ATV – Experimental Ambient Video Project, one-hour animation |
| 1986 | Corporate Commission – Merrill Lynch |
| 1985-1986 | Artist in Residence – WTZA – Computer works employing �paintbox� and video editing. Created original look and feel of the station |
| 1985 | The Allegro from Spring � Vivaldi The Four Seasons – Winner of The CULTURE, SCIENCE & HOBBIES AWARD, of the International Software Fair Audio Visual Age Show, Tokyo 1988 |
| 1985 | Spyra Gyra – Music Video animation |
| 1984 | Oregon Suite – 30-minute video using abstract animation transferred from film, edited to the music of the Jazz Group Oregon, This work toured Japan as a USA Japan Cultural Exchange. Broadcast on NYC TV |
| 1983 | Polyphrenia – 15-minute animation shown at Studio 54, and AIR Gallery |
| 1982 | Pyramid Man – 15-minute animation shown at Studio 54, and AIR Gallery |
| 1971 | Experimental Video Project – Whitney Museum, NY |
| PUBLICATIONS | |
| Psychedelic Art – Masters and Houston, Grove Press | |
| History of Modern Art – H H Arnason, Abrams Books | |
| Art Through The Ages 6th Edition – De LaCroix & Tansey Harcourt Brace Jovanovich | |
| The Avant-Garde In Modern Painting – August Bazain, Simon & Schuster | |
| New Directions In Modern Painting – Udo Kulterberg, Cologne | |
| Whitney Biennial Catalogue, Curatorial Essay 2004 | |
| Summer of Love – Art of The Psychedelic Era Tate Publishing 2005 | |
| Traces Du Sacre – The Sacred In Art Publication of the Centre Pompidou, Paris | |
| Psychedelic Optical & Visionary Art San Antonio Museum of Art/ MIT Press | |
