Pacita Abad

Pacita Abad was a pioneering Filipino artist and activist. In her early works, she explored tropical flora and fauna, tribal masks, and underwater paradises. Today, Abad is celebrated for her technique and contributions to large-scale installations. 

Biography of Pacita Abad

Pacita Abad was born in 1946 in Batanes, Philippines. She studied at several prominent American institutions, including the Art Students League in New York and the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. Her political activism, opposing the regime of Ferdinand Marcos, compelled her to emigrate to San Francisco in 1970, and in 1994, she became a U.S. citizen.

Pacita's adventurous spirit led her to explore diverse and exotic destinations, including Guatemala, Mexico, India, Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, Mali, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, and Indonesia. These journeys profoundly influenced her life and served as wellsprings of inspiration for a myriad of ideas, techniques, and materials that found their way into her artworks.

Her pioneering approach to painting brought attention to marginalized women, including Indigenous Filipinas, domestic workers from Pakistan, and Cambodian refugees.

She was honored as the recipient of the TOYM Award for Art in the Philippines in 1984. 

Her works are included in several public collections around the world, including those at the Singapore Art Museum, the Metro Center Subway Station in Washington D.C., Citibank Hong Kong, UNICEF New York, as well as national museums in Sri Lanka, Cuba, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Korea.

During her illustrious 30-year career, Abad created a remarkable portfolio of over 5,000 artworks before her passing in 2004. She passed away in Singapore while undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer, shortly after completing her final project, the Alkaff Bridge.

Pacita Abad's art style

Pacita Abad's artistic style is marked by the rhythmic recurrence of shapes, patterns, and hues. Her art seamlessly traverses the realms of abstract and representational art, all the while embracing opulent reds, purples, and yellows reminiscent of the vibrant tapestry of Islamic Filipino textiles and culture.

Pacita Abad employed a distinctive artistic technique known as trapunto painting, which reimagined traditional Italian quilting methods. This technique imparted a quilted texture and added a sculptural dimension to her canvases. In this approach, she incorporated culturally significant materials such as shells, textiles, and mirrors into her later canvases, infusing them with added depth and cultural resonance.

In 1991, Pacita Abad created a trapunto painting titled "Caught at the Border," depicting a migrant gazing through the bars of a prison window. The prison's facade is ingeniously crafted from sequins and mirrors, offering a reflection of the viewer's gaze.

Pieces from her "Immigrant Experience" series, which spans from 1983 to 1995, shine a spotlight on the growing multiculturalism of the 1990s. The series encapsulates various narratives, encompassing events such as the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the Haitian refugee crisis, and the detention of Mexican migrant laborers at the US border.