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Pacita Abad: The First Retrospective of Pacita Abad's Paintings, co-curated by Victoria Sung, Eungie Joo and Nancy Lim, at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Floor 4

Past exhibition
21 October 2023 - 28 January 2024
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Overview
Pacita Abad, The First Retrospective of Pacita Abad's Paintings, co-curated by Victoria Sung, Eungie Joo and Nancy Lim, at San...

SFMOMA: The first retrospective of Pacita Abad (born 1946, Batanes, Philippines; died 2004, Singapore) features over 40 dazzling works that showcase the artist’s experiments in different mediums, including painting, sculpture, textiles, and works on paper. Abad is best known for her trapuntos, a form of quilted painting made by stitching and stuffing her canvases as opposed to stretching them over a wood frame. Over a 32-year career, the prolific artist made a vast number of artworks that traverse a diversity of subjects, from colorful masks to intricately constructed underwater scenes to abstract compositions.

 

Though she became a U.S. citizen in 1994, Abad spent time in 60 countries, including Sudan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, with longer stays in the United States, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Singapore. Through her travels, she interacted with myriad artistic communities, incorporating diverse cultural traditions — from Korean ink brush painting to Indonesian batik — into her expansive practice. Abad’s global, peripatetic existence is reflected in the portability of her works and in her use of textiles, a medium often associated with female labor and historically marginalized as craft. Her bold, colorful pieces are deeply personal expressions of her lived experience, and the exhibition celebrates the work of an artist whose vibrant visual, material, and conceptual concerns are as urgent today as they were three decades ago.

 

Pacita Abad (on view October 21, 2023–January 28, 2024, Floor 4) features over 40 dazzling works that showcase the artist’s experiments in different mediums, including painting, sculpture, textiles, and works on paper.

 

Exhibition Tour

Walker Art Center, Minneapolis: April 15–September 3, 2023

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: October 21, 2023–January 28, 2024

MoMA PS1, New York: March 28–September 2, 2024

Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto: October 12, 2024–January 19, 2025

 

Full Press Release can be downloaded below

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Installation Views
  • Installation views courtesy of SFMOMA. Photos: Tenari Tuatagaloa
    Installation views courtesy of SFMOMA. Photos: Tenari Tuatagaloa
  • Sfmoma 2023 Install 4
  • Sfmoma 2023 Install 8
  • Sfmoma 2023 Install 9
  • Sfmoma 2023 Install 7
  • Sfmoma 2023 Install 2
  • Sfmoma 2023 Install 5
  • Sfmoma 2023 Install 3
  • Sfmoma 2023 Install 6
Press
  • The Satin Sisters and Afro-Asian Intimacies in the Bay

    Ishmael Reed, Alta Online, April 11, 2024
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  • A Feast for the Senses: The Thrill of Exploring Fashion Exhibits

    Antonia Sardone, University of Fashion Blog, February 10, 2024
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  • Museum of Modern Art offers palette of possibilities with Free Family Day

    Antonina Mikriukova, Scotscoop, January 17, 2024
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  • See Inside the Revelatory Retrospective for Filipino American Artist Pacita Abad

    Sarah Cascone, Artnet, January 2, 2024
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  • Pacita Abad

    Tausif Noor, e-flux, December 22, 2023
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  • One Fine Show: ‘Pacita Abad’ at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

    Dan Duray, Observer, November 17, 2023
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  • Filipino artist Pacita Abad's 'vibrant spirit of rebellion' lives on at SFMOMA

    Jessica Zack, San Francisco Chronicle, November 14, 2023
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  • Pacita Abad Celebrated at Her First Retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

    Paul John Caña, Esquire Magazine, November 4, 2023
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  • Pacita Abad A Revelation At San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art

    Chadd Scott, Forbes, November 3, 2023
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  • San Francisco Museum of Modern Art celebrates first retrospective of artist Pacita Abad

    Staff Writer, ArtDaily, October 27, 2023
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  • At SFMOMA, Pacita Abad’s Painted Textiles Stare Right Back

    Sarah Hotchkiss, KQED, October 20, 2023
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  • Fil-Am artist Pacita Abad’s retrospective at SF MoMA comes with free admission and workshops

    Staff Writer, Inquirer Manila, October 18, 2023
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