On November 28, the “Pacita Abad: Philippine Painter” exhibition opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, also known as The M. The exhibit showcases the early works of the late Filipino artist Pacita Abad. The Batanes-born artist is known for her use of bright colors, playful patterns, and experimentation with trapunto — a quilting technique where canvases are padded and stitched together before being layered with paint, textiles, and small objects such as buttons, ribbons, and shells.
The show’s curator, Clarissa Chikiamco from the National Gallery Singapore, chose works from 1976 to 1986 — the first decade of Abad’s artistic career. Determined to pursue her passion in art in 1976, Abad turned down a law school scholarship from the University of California, Berkeley to take up formal painting classes at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C.
The exhibit is divided into three distinct themes that highlight different phases within Abad’s artistic journey. The first theme focuses on her early work, created during her art school years and when she was still honing her technical skills. The second theme delves into her exploration of color, particularly in her innovative use of the trapunto technique. The last theme of the exhibit showcases Abad’s fascination with the deep water, and visitors are treated to the artist’s vibrant underwater scenes which capture the beauty of marine life.
Abad’s early foray into painting, which included vibrant still life displays both her persistence as a beginner then and her immense growth now evident in her prolific body of work. It’s hard to think of a time when Abad — whose works are now posthumously on show and acquired by the biggest art institutions including the Tate in U.K. and the Museum of Modern Art in the U.S. — was struggling with drawing a straight line. But as Chikiamco noted in the exhibit, “While she lacked technical skill in representing figures with objective accuracy, she delighted in expressing herself through color.”
Highlights of the exhibit include Abad’s Batanes, a vibrant wall-sized canvas that presents the rural countryside of the artist’s home province. The museum also boasts several of Abad’s giant trapuntos, such as Pacita Sailing and Butterfly, which Abad painstakingly painted and hand-sewed. Many of the pieces showcase Abad’s love of traveling, as the artist found inspiration in the over 60 countries she visited before her death in 2004.
During her lifetime, Abad mainly received recognition from Philippine art institutions as evidenced by the breadth of media clippings that are presented alongside the paintings at The M. It was only until recently, after a successful solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Manila in 2018, that Abad began to see international acclaim. While many major international museums had overlooked Abad — despite the artist sending over a hundred proposals for exhibits — her work over the last few years has rapidly grown in popularity. Since 2020, her art has been displayed in international biennials, most notably at the 2024 Venice Biennale. Her paintings are in more than 50 collections around the world.
Despite not receiving the recognition she deserved while alive, Abad lived a life that was colorful, exciting, and always grounded in her Filipino identity. “I’d rather be known as a Filipino painter, wherever I am,” Abad said in a 1985 interview.
After a successful touring retrospective that has brought select pieces from her oeuvre around the world, the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila commemorates the 20th anniversary of Abad’s passing, while also marking a homecoming for the artist. “Pacita Abad: Philippine Painter” is currently ongoing and will run until March 30, 2025.
