Past Solo Exhibition

Pacita Abad: Common Ground 25.10.2025 — 13.12.2025

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About The Exhibition

Pacita Abad saw the world through colour. “I feel like I am an ambassador of colours,” she once declared, “always projecting a positive mood that helps make the world smile.”

Born in the Philippines in 1946, Abad’s practice drew on the many artistic traditions she encountered through her extensive travels, including mirror embroidery from India, ink brush painting from Korea and batik from Indonesia. These diverse influences formed a multicultural visual language bursting with colours, textures and techniques. More than an aesthetic choice, her approach to artmaking can also be seen as a political statement: it embodied her resistance against the dominant western art forms of the late 20th-century, and her elevation of practices often overlooked in formal art history.

The artist also addressed themes of migration and identity, informed by her own political displacement from the Philippines to San Francisco at the age of 23, after her family faced violence for opposing the Marcos regime. Her perspective was further shaped in 1970s San Francisco—a thriving hub for immigrant communities and strong activist spirit—as well as visits to refugee camps, such as those along the Cambodia-Thailand border. Long before the art world turned its attention to diverse and decentralised voices, her work brought attention to overlooked stories and experiences.

When Abad was invited to do a residency with STPI in 2003, she was working mostly with abstraction, translating her cross-border experiences into kaleidoscopic compositions that captured the intensity of a life lived across cultures. She made the circle—a shape she described as “direct, simple, modern, universal, intimate, fascinating and playful”—a central motif. Inviting joy and connection, the works produced at STPI's workshop reflect her belief that art should be accessible and enjoyable for everyone.

At a time when Abad’s work has gained global recognition, this exhibition restages a selection of works from her pioneering 2003 STPI exhibition, Circles in My Mind, along with two paintings made in the same year, borrowed from the Pacita Abad Art Estate. Presented now, her works continue to speak with renewed urgency, addressing culture, identity and diversity in ways that feel especially needed and resonant today.

STPI would like to thank the Pacita Abad Art Estate for their support for this exhibition.

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Wild thing I think I like it, 2003. Stencilled paper pulp, lithograph, screenprint, collagraph and collage elements on STPI handmade paper, 107 x 81 cm.

Feel the beat!, 2003. Paper pulp, lithograph, linocut, relief print and collaged elements on STPI handmade paper, 107 x 81.5 cm.

Red and black in color, 2003. Stencilled paper pulp on STPI handmade paper, 168 x 132.5 cm.

Make love not war!, 2003, Paper pulp and collage elements on STPI handmade paper, 102 x 127 cm.

About the artist

Pacita Abad

Residency in 2003

Pacita Abad (1946–2004, Batanes, Philippines, lived and worked in Batanes, Philippines and New York, United States) was an artist whose prolific painting practice was characterised by exuberant colours, unconventional materials and a strong spirit of experimentation. Deeply influenced by her extensive travels and interactions with diverse cultures, her work spanned numerous subjects including social justice, migration, cultural traditions and environmental concerns.

Abad relocated to San Francisco in 1970, following increasing hostility towards her politically dissident family due to her activism against the authoritarian Fernando Marcos regime. There, she was greatly inspired by its social movements and immigrant population, sparking her year-long journey from Turkey to the Philippines, where she had advocated for marginalised communities through art. Drawing from the indigenous styles and techniques encountered through her travels, her highly tactile trapunto works combine acrylic painting with stuffed quilting, and incorporate materials including ceramic, glass, shells, buttons and circuit boards. One of her largest trapunto paintings, Marcos and His Cronies (1985–1995), references masks used in a Sinhalese exorcism ritual and depicts the dictator and his associates as demonic figures that devour humans.

Abad completed her art training at the Corcoran School of Art, Washington, D.C. in 1975 and the Art Students League of New York in 1977. Her works are held in major collections including Tate, London; M+, Hong Kong; National Gallery Singapore; Ayala Museum, Manila; Fukuoka Art Museum; Museo de Arte Moderno, Santo Domingo; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana; National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta; National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul; National Museum, Colombo; National Museum, Dhaka; National Museum, Jakarta; Singapore Art Museum; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; and Taipei Fine Arts Museum.