Late Filipina artist Pacita Abad receives first solo exhibition in Middle East

The late Filipina artist Pacita Abad, who passed away in 2004 after a celebrated 30-year career, has been honored with her first solo exhibition in the Middle East.

The exhibition is entitled Pacita Abad: I Thought the Streets Were Paved with Gold is running at Dubai’s Jameel Art Centre on the ground floor from September 8 2021 to February 13 2022, located in Dubai’s Jaddaf Waterfront.

The show brings together exuberant signature works – from her colourful trapunto embroideries to major paintings, with a focus on four main bodies of work including Masks and Spirits series (1979 – 1991), the Immigrant Experience (1983-1995), the Door to life series (1998-2003) and abstract works (1985-2002) – that together span abstraction to social realism. The exhibition takes visitors on a journey from Manila to Hong Kong, via New York, Sanaa and beyond, the locations that she worked in across her career.

Abad, born in a small island in the northern-most part of the Philippines in 1946, created more than 4,500 artworks in her career, winning awards across the world before succumbing to lung cancer at the age of 58. There are also currently exhibitions running at Haus Der Kunst in Munich as well as the Tate Liverpool.

“I always see the world through colour, although my vision, perspective and paintings are constantly influenced by new ideas and changing environments. I feel like I am an ambassador of colours, always projecting a positive mood that helps make the world smile,” the artist once said.