Pacita Abad

Over her 32-year career, Pacita Abad (US, b. Philippines, 1946–2004) made works spanning a range of subjects, from globally inspired masks and intimate portrayals of immigrant life to patterned abstractions and dazzling underwater scenes. The prolific artist experimented in many mediums, including paintings, textiles, ceramics, works on paper, and other forms.

Abad’s Early Years & World Travel
Born in 1946 in Batanes, the northernmost island province of the Philippines, Abad grew up in the capital city of Manila. After leading a student demonstration against the Marcos dictatorship, she left for the United States in 1970 to escape political violence. Abad traveled extensively throughout her lifetime, visiting more than 60 countries including Bangladesh, Mexico, Sudan, Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia. Largely self-taught, she incorporated materials and techniques from her travels into her expansive artistic practice.

A New Method of Painting: Trapunto
In 1981 Abad developed a painting method she called “trapunto” (from the Italian word trapungere, meaning “to embroider”). After painting her canvases, she would stitch, stuff, and embellish them with beads and other objects, creating three dimensional, tactile surfaces. Her radical embrace of art forms like quilting and other kinds of needlework historically marginalized as craft—and often associated with women’s and non-Western labor—dissolved distinctions between fine, functional, and decorative arts.

Celebrating Ornamentation & the Power of Creativity
Abad was flamboyant, freewheeling, and funky. She embodied the Philippine concept of borloloy, a Tagalog word that loosely translates to “excess ornamentation.” And she lived her approach to art-making completely, adorning her paintings, her clothing, and her surroundings with buttons, beads, mirrors, and cowrie shells. Today, Abad is celebrated around the world for her boldly feminist and transnational outlook, commitment to social justice, and belief in the transformational power of creativity.