MANILA, PHILIPPINES – For its first art fair of 2025, Silverlens is pleased to return to S.E.A. Focus with a duo presentation of Filipino diaspora artists Pacita Abad and nephew Pio Abad, marking the first time they are presented together in Singapore.
The presentation features a series of prints Pacita Abad (b.1946, Batanes, Philippines – d. 2004, Singapore) produced during her three-month residency at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute (STPI) in 2003. The artist, alongside print and paper-makers at STPI, translated her rich visual language onto paper-based media and processes.
“The results of the STPI collaborative process overwhelmed me, as the prints became extensions of my paintings, with their luminous colours textured with the added glitter, fabric, buttons and mirrors,” Abad shared in the exhibition catalog for Circles in My Mind, a 2004 exhibition of her STPI works at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
Pacita Abad’s works are on view in concurrent major museum exhibitions in two continents. Her North American traveling retrospective Pacita Abad is at its last leg at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, previously on view at the Walker Institute, Minneapolis; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), California; and MoMA PS1, New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Manila opened Pacita Abad: Philippine Painter, an exhibition showcasing early works by Pacita in the Philippines.
Complementing the presentation are ink on paper drawings by Pacita’s nephew and estate curator, Turner-nominated artist Pio Abad (b.1983, Manila, Philippines; lives and works in London, England) who examines the personal and political entanglements of and within objects. Deeply informed by unfolding events in the Philippines, his work emanates from a personal family chronicle woven into the nation’s story.
Pio Abad’s exhibition To Those Sitting in Darkness at the historic Ashmolean Museum was nominated for the 2024 Turner Prize Award and has been recreated for the Turner Prize Award’s accompanying exhibition at Tate Britain where it is on view until 16 February 2025.
Silverlens’ presentation not only highlights the profound connections between Pacita and Pio Abad’s practices but also emphasizes their shared experiences as migrants, deeply rooted in cultural, political, and historical ties.
Curated by John Tung, S.E.A. Focus will be on view from 17 through 26 January 2025 at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore.
