Pacita Abad composes in layers and her works on paper are of no exception. The late itinerant artist is often understood synonymously with her quilted canvas paintings embellished with hand-sewn ornamentations, also known as trapuntos. Yet, her experimental series on paper roused by her three-month residency at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute (STPI) in 2003, Circles in My Mind (2003–04), reveals that Abad's inclination toward tactility and abundance is unbounded by media.
Similar to her trapuntos, each stratum of Abad's monumental paper-based assemblages on view is imbued with technique and materiality as she leans into the medium's possibilities. In Daydreams (2003), for example, circular gestures in oil paint and oil pastel are enriched by what were likely print-making objects: painted mylar pieces, cloth, and buttons, while carefully pasted batik and glitter give the collage on board Night and Day (2004) its respective depth and shine. Such works, alongside many others, were presented at what would become Abad's last exhibition before her death, "Circles in My Mind" (2004) at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila. Twenty years later, the reintroduction of these works in the city is suffused with new meanings steeped in migratory experiences and the very layered qualities of Filipino identity.
Rounding out the boisterous fullness of the large works are Abad's rarely exhibited floral oil-on-paper monoprints created during her residence in Jakarta in the late 1990s. Layers of delicately applied oil paint transferred onto paper, these compositions possess a tranquil tenderness that juxtaposes the ravenous abundance of most of Abad's oeuvre.
Press release courtesy SILVERLENS.
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