NEW YORK, NY.- Tina Kim Gallery is pleased to announce the representation of the Pacita Abad Art Estate. The late Pacita Abad (1946-2004) was a Filipino American artist with a sweepingly global set of life experiences. An early transnational painter, Abad participated in over 150 solo and group exhibitions in the US, Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean during her peripatetic, 32-year career. In the past two years, her work has been included in the 11th Berlin Biennale, 13th Gwangju Biennale, and the 4th Kathmandu Triennale. She has also received solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Arts and Design, Manila in 2018, as well as at Spike Island in Bristol in 2020, and currently at the Jameel Arts Center, Dubai. Abad is the subject of a major traveling survey, opening at the Walker Arts Center in 2023. Her work has been collected by the Tate, UK; M+ Museum, Hong Kong; the National Gallery of Singapore; and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC among others.

Existing beyond defined paradigms of Western mediums, Abad’s myriad cross cultural approaches to composition were characterized by vibrant colors, and an accumulation of processes and materials she gathered during her travels. In some instances, she embedded techniques such as Indonesian batik and Korean ink-brush painting and found indigenous materials including shells, beads, and textiles into her compositions. Her immense body of work, including paintings, textile trapuntos, prints, and public art installations, brought together images and experiences across cultures, economies and histories, and offered reflections on the global, long before the discourses of globalization and transnationalism were felt in the art world.

“We are thrilled to be representing the Estate of Pacita Abad, a visionary artist uniquely situated within the cross-cultural interactions produced by modernity, resonating with the internationalism foundational to our program” says founder Tina Kim. Abad’s densely layered works act at times as a passport—a record of the places and people she had encountered, and in others as speculation on these diverse subjects’ encounters in modernity.

Tina Kim Gallery will present an exhibition of Pacita Abad’s work in Spring 2023.

Born in the Philippines in 1946, Pacita Abad committed to a life as a painter after a year of travel through the Middle East and Asia in 1973. She studied painting at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. and the Arts Student League in New York. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Jameel Arts Center, Dubai (2021); Spike Island, Bristol (2020); the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila (2018); National Museum, Jakarta (1998); The National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C (1994); Hong Kong Arts Centre (1986); Cultural Center of the Philippines, Manila (1985); and the Bhirasri Museum of Modern Art, Bangkok (1980), among others. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions and biennials, including: the 11th Berlin Biennale, 13th Gwangju Biennale, 4th Kathmandu Triennale, Asia/America: Identities in Contemporary Asian American Art, a travelling exhibition organised by the Asia Society, New York; Beyond the Border: Art by Recent Immigrants, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; La Segunda Bienal de la Habana, Cuba; and Second Contemporary Asian Art Show, Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan. Her work can be found in the collections of Tate Modern, London; The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C., M+ Museum, Hong Kong and the National Gallery of Singapore. She died in Singapore in 2004. Abad is the subject of a major traveling retrospective opening in 2023 at the Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis.