Nelson Morales

Article (news)

Singapore gallery STPI to present Pacita Abad exhibit ‘Common Ground’

ABS-CBN Lifestyle

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17610275988471. Pacita Abad.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Pacita Abad. Handout"/><span class="fr-inner">Pacita Abad. <em>Handout</em></span></span></span>Two decades after her residency at STPI – Creative Workshop &amp; Gallery, Pacita Abad returns to Singapore in “Common Ground,” an exhibition that reintroduces a pivotal yet rarely seen chapter in her art practice.</div><p>Running from October 25 to December 13, the show gathers works created during her 2003 residency, presented alongside two of her iconic trapunto paintings from the Pacita Abad Art Estate.</p><p>For Abad, the late Filipino artist known for her vibrant, exuberant approach to color and texture, STPI represented a moment of fearless experimentation. She was the workshop’s third artist-in-residence — and its first woman — at a time when its ethos of process-driven exploration was still being shaped. What emerged was a body of work that distilled her lifelong fascination with color, pattern, and cross-cultural dialogue into an intimate, playful language.</p><p>Her residency coincided with her most visible contribution to Singapore’s public art landscape: the Alkaff Bridge, transformed into a riot of 46 colors and 2,350 hand-painted circles. </p><p>In “Common Ground,” those same circular motifs recur — as suns, moons, traffic lights, and umbrella forms — layered with glitter, buttons, mirrors, and pulp. Abad once described the circle as “direct, simple, modern, universal, intimate, fascinating, and playful,” and the works she made at STPI shimmer with that sense of vitality.</p><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17610276511063. Pacita Abad.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Pacita Abad. Handout"/><span class="fr-inner">Pacita Abad. <em>Handout</em></span></span></span>“Pacita Abad’s practice, which championed cross-cultural dialogue and diversity, was ahead of its time in addressing what are now central concerns in contemporary art,” said Emi Eu, executive director of STPI. “Her fearless experimentation with materials resonates with STPI’s mission to push the limits of paper and printmaking.”</div><p>Born in Batanes, Philippines, in 1946, Abad lived a peripatetic life across six continents and more than 60 countries. She once called herself “an ambassador of colors,” projecting a kind of radical optimism through her work. Yet beneath the joy, her art was grounded in displacement and activism. Exiled from the Philippines in the 1970s for her family’s opposition to the Marcos regime, Abad later found solidarity among migrant and refugee communities in San Francisco and Southeast Asia. Those experiences of exile and empathy coursed through her trapunto paintings and textile-based works — tactile tapestries of migration, resilience, and belonging.</p><p>Today, Abad’s name resonates globally, following major retrospectives at MoMA PS1 in New York, the Art Gallery of Ontario, SFMOMA, and the Walker Art Center, as well as appearances at the 60th Venice Biennale and the 13th Gwangju Biennale. </p><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/176102773820312. Pacita Abad, Under her spell, 2003.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Pacita Abad, &#x27;Under her spell,&#x27; 2003. Handout"/><span class="fr-inner">Pacita Abad, &#x27;Under her spell,&#x27; 2003. <em>Handout</em></span></span></span>Against this backdrop of renewed international acclaim, “Common Ground” feels both timely and intimate — a return to a space of making that captured her curiosity at its most unguarded.</div><p>Revisiting these works two decades later, what stands out is not only their chromatic intensity but their insistence on joy as resistance — color as a language that speaks across borders. </p><p>“Common Ground” doesn’t just reflect on Abad’s legacy; it reminds viewers that, for her, art was always an act of connection.</p><div><br/></div><div><em>“Pacita Abad: Common Ground” runs from October 25 to December 13, 2025, at STPI, 41 Robertson Quay, Singapore.</em></div>

<p><i>Running from October 25 to December 13, the show gathers Pacita Abad's works created during her 2003 residency, presented alongside two of her iconic trapunto paintings from the Pacita Abad Art Estate.</i></p>

Running from October 25 to December 13, the show gathers Pacita Abad's works created during her 2003 residency, presented alongside two of her iconic trapunto paintings from the Pacita Abad Art Estate.