Pacita Abad retrospective to open at Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center

The retrospective will be the most comprehensive exploration of Abad’s works to-date, including more than 100 objects drawn from private and public collections across Asia, Europe and the United States. CONTRIBUTED

MINNEAPOLIS — The Walker Art Center will open the first retrospective of artist Pacita Abad (1946–2004), on April 15, exhibiting significant and rarely seen works from across her 32-year career.

The retrospective will be the most comprehensive exploration of Abad’s works to-date, including more than 100 objects drawn from private and public collections across Asia, Europe and the United States.

Abad established a unique trapunto technique in painting and has influenced numerous art scholars. She received numerous international awards in the field of painting. Her works have been acquired and prized by art museums in Tokyo, Paris, London, Singapore, San Francisco, New York City, Hong Kong, and Manila, among others. Her art has been in the national collections of at least 70 countries worldwide.

Pacita Abad’s Filipina: A racial identity crisis (1990).

“Abad developed a distinct visual vocabulary that embraced the artistic traditions of global cultures and actively blurred the boundaries between fine art and craft. While Abad was engaged in artistic and political dialogues during her life, the depth, range, and inventiveness of her work is only now coming to prominence,” the Center said in a release.

Following its run at the Walker, through September 3, 2023, the exhibition will travel to the San Francisco Museum of Art (SFMOMA).

Abad was born on October 5, 1946 and passed away from cancer on December 7, 2004. She was a 1968 political science graduate from the University of the Philippines and continued her graduate studies there. Her parents, Jorge A. Abad and Aurora Barsana Abad, were both members of Congress from Batanes. When her father fell victim to election fraud financed by President Ferdinand Marcos, she became an activist against the regime.

When it became too dangerous for her, her parents sent her to Spain to continue her studies. She eventually came to the United States, earned a master’s in Asian history at Lone Mountain (University of San Francisco) in 1971. Abad studied painting at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. and The Art Students League in New York City.