Pacita Abad

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Lore & Background

Pacita Abad was born in Basco, Batanes, on October 5, 1946, the fifth of thirteen children. Her father, Jorge Abad, represented the lone district of Batanes in the Congress of the Philippines for five nonconsecutive terms from 1949 to 1972; her mother, Aurora Abad, served one term (1966 to 1969) in the same position. Abad graduated from the University of the Philippines Diliman with a BA in political science in 1968, then began graduate law studies. After organizing student demonstrations against brutal tactics in the 1969 election, she met with President Ferdinand Marcos. Following her father's successful protest of his 1969 election defeat, the family home was shot at, and her parents encouraged her to leave. In 1970, en route to Madrid, she visited an aunt in San Francisco and stayed in the US. She earned a master's degree in Asian history from Lone Mountain College in 1973, then deferred a Boalt Law School scholarship after meeting Jack Garrity. They traveled across Asia for a year, and upon returning to California, she took up painting. She later studied at the Art Students League of New York and the Corcoran School of Art. From 1978 to 1980, Abad traveled with Garrity to Bangladesh, Sudan, and Thailand, where she visited refugee camps along the Cambodia–Thailand border. She created the 24-painting series Portraits of Kampuchea (also called the Cambodian Refugee series), exhibited at the Bhirasri Institute of Modern Art in Bangkok in April 1980. In Boston from 1980 to 1982, she developed her trapunto painting technique with assistance from fabric artist Barbara Newman, creating African Mephisto in 1981, the first painting in her Masks and Spirits series. In 1986, she co-founded the Philippine Arts, Letters, and Media Council in Washington, D.C. She received residencies at the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper (first in 1990) and Pyramid Atlantic Art Center (1991). Her Immigrant Experience series began after a 1994 fellowship from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. In 1994–95, she had a solo exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. In 1996, six of her trapunto paintings were hung in US embassies through the Art in Embassies Program. In 2001, she built Fundacion Pacita, a studio and residence on a clifftop site in Batanes. She was an artist-in-residence at Lindshammar Glassworks in Sweden in 2001 and at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute in 2003.

Reader's Guide

Pacita Abad's significance lies in her trapunto painting technique, which integrates stitched and stuffed fabric with painting to produce a sculptural effect. She incorporated materials including cloth, mirrors, beads, shells, and buttons into the surface of her paintings. Her work is characterized by vibrant color. She created over 4,500 artworks, including series such as the Cambodian Refugee series (1979–80), Masks and Spirits, Asian Abstractions (begun 1985), Immigrant Experience (begun 1994), and Endless Blues (2002). Her political works include Death of Ninoy (1983), Marcos and His Cronies (1985–95), Caught at the Border (1991), Korean Shopkeepers (1992), and The Sky Is Falling, the Sky Is Falling (1998). In 1990–93, her series Masks from Six Continents hung as a mural at Metro Center station in Washington, DC. In 2004, months before her death, she painted the 55-meter long Alkaff Bridge in Singapore, covering it with 2,350 circles in 55 colors, now known as Singapore ArtBridge. Over more than 30 years, she exhibited in over 200 museums, galleries and other venues worldwide, including 75 solo shows. Her work is in collections in over 70 countries.

Did You Know?

• Abad created over 4,500 artworks during her career.
• She painted the 55-meter long Alkaff Bridge in Singapore, covering it with 2,350 circles in 55 colors, just months before her death in 2004.
• Her father Jorge Abad and mother Aurora Abad both served as representatives of Batanes in the Congress of the Philippines.
• In 1996, six of her trapunto paintings were hung in US embassies in Africa and Asia through the Art in Embassies Program.
• She co-founded the Philippine Arts, Letters, and Media Council in Washington, D.C., in 1986.