Abad, Pacita

Born on October 5, 1946, in the remote, storm-swept northern archipelago of Basco, Batanes, Pacita Abad grew up inside a highly prominent, politically active family. Her parents' public service deeply instilled in her a lifelong dedication to social justice. She initially pursued political science and law foundations at the University of the Philippines Diliman. However, her life shifted dramatically in 1970 when her vocal student activism against the emerging Marcos dictatorship put her life in danger. Her family sent her abroad, intended for Spain, but a fateful stopover in San Francisco permanently altered her path.

Arriving in California during the height of the 1970s counterculture and civil rights movements, Abad chose to remain in San Francisco, completing a Master's degree at Lone Mountain College. Embracing a nomadic lifestyle with her husband, international development economist Jack Garrity, she traveled across the globe. Though she took specialized technical courses at the Art Students League of New York and the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., Abad famously proclaimed her travels to be her true academy.

Abad’s late-career timeline was marked by historic breakthroughs and continuous creation, even during a fierce battle with terminal lung cancer. In 2003, she completed an elite studio residency at the STPI Creative Workshop and Gallery in Singapore, culminating in her iconic project Singapore Tylor Print, where she hand-painted the 55-meter-long Alkaff Bridge with 55 vibrant colors and thousands of stenciled circles.

Passing away peacefully in late 2004 in Singapore, Abad left behind a staggering archive of over 4,500 artworks. In recent years, her estate—stewarded by her nephew Pio Abad—has overseen an extraordinary global revival. This was highlighted by a blockbuster traveling retrospective that toured major North American museums through 2025, and the historic acquisition of her complete personal archives by Stanford University Libraries, cementing her legacy as a permanent master of global contemporary art.

Exhibition & Archival History
Selected Individual & Traveling Retrospectives
2026: Pacita Abad: Door to Life – Tina Kim Gallery, New York City, USA (A major exhibition highlighting her 1998 Yemen series, debuting her never-before-seen qamariya stained-glass window paintings).

2025: Pacita Abad: Common Ground – STPI Creative Workshop & Gallery, Singapore (A historic survey marking two decades since her passing, reuniting her paper pulp experiments with her iconic textiles).

2024–2025: Pacita Abad Blockbuster Retrospective Tour – Comprehensive transnational museum loop curated by Victoria Sung and the Walker Art Center.

Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Toronto, Canada (Oct 2024 – Jan 2025).

MoMA PS1, New York City, USA (Apr – Sep 2024).

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), California, USA (Oct 2023 – Jan 2024).

Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA (Inaugural Launch, Apr – Sep 2023).

2024: Pacita Abad: Philippine Painter – Metropolitan Museum of Manila (The MET Manila), BGC, Taguig, Philippines.

1984: Pacita Abad: A Living Canvas – Museum of Philippine Art (MOPA), Manila (Her historic mid-career home presentation introducing trapunto to the archipelago).

Selected Biennales & Institutional Group Presentations
2026: Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale: In Interludes and Transitions – JAX District, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Curated by Nora Razian and Sabih Ahmed).

2026: Imagining an Archipelago – Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, USA.

2025–2026: Pacita Abad's Masks Paintings: Room 1 – Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom (An ongoing, featured installation for the 25th Anniversary highlights of the Tate’s Artist and Society collection rooms).

2024: 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia – Venice, Italy (Extensively spotlighted within Adriano Pedrosa's central pavilion theme, Foreigners Everywhere).

2022: 58th Carnegie International – Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA.

2020: 11th Berlin Biennale – Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany.

Permanent Institutional Collections
Following her global resurgence, Abad’s textiles are preserved within premier international museum collections:

The Tate Modern (London, United Kingdom)

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) (New York City, USA)

The Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, USA)

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) (California, USA)

The National Gallery Singapore (Singapore)

The M+ Museum (Hong Kong)

The National Museum of Fine Arts & Cultural Center of the Philippines (Manila)