Pacita Abad: Art Gallery of Ontario

A vivid kaleidoscope of color, the first major retrospective dedicated to artist Pacita Abad makes its only Canadian stop at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. Spanning her 32-year career and showcasing Pacita’s vibrant paintings, prints, and trapuntos, this revelatory exhibition of more than 100 works celebrates the late artist’s bold blend of global craft, feminism, and social consciousness.

Born in Batanes, Philippines, Pacita migrated to the United States in 1970 to escape political persecution after she led a student demonstration against the authoritarian regime of Ferdinand Marcos. A global citizen whose work reflects a lifetime of artistic and political engagement, she traveled extensively, visiting more than 60 countries in her lifetime. Pacita incorporated into her work the textiles, colors, and materials she encountered—from Indonesian batik printing to Korean ink drawing, macramé, and beading. Her signature medium is the trapunto, a hybrid art form she developed in 1981 inspired by medieval Italian tapestries. In these signature pieces, painted and embellished canvas is stuffed, then quilted, to create large, richly textured wall hangings.

Pacita’s desire to give visibility to political refugees and oppressed peoples is as striking as her numerous abstract experiments with color. “I have always believed that an artist has a special obligation to remind society of its social responsibility,” she said.

Developed in collaboration with the Pacita Abad Art Estate and organized by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, “Pacita Abad” is curated by Victoria Sung, Phyllis C. Wattis Senior Curator at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and former Associate Curator, Visual Arts, Walker Art Center, with Matthew Villar Miranda, curatorial fellow, Visual Arts, Walker Art Center. The presentation at the AGO is organized by Renée van der Avoird, Associate Curator of Canadian Art, AGO, in collaboration with Carla Felix, Community Outreach Advisor.