Pio Abad’s artistic practice is concerned with the personal and political entanglements of objects. His wide-ranging body of work, encompassing drawing, painting, textiles, installation and text, mines alternative or repressed historical events and offers counternarratives that draw out threads of complicity between incidents, ideologies and people. Deeply informed by unfolding events in the Philippines, where Abad was born and raised, his art emanates from a family narrative woven into the nation’s story. Abad’s parents were at the forefront of the anti-dictatorship struggle in the Philippines during the 1970’s and 80’s and it is the need to remember this history that has shaped the foundations of his work.
Abad’s solo exhibitions include: To Those Sitting in Darkness, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (2024); Fear of Freedom Makes Us See Ghosts, Ateneo Art Gallery, Manila (2022); Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite, Kadist, San Francisco (2019); Splendour, Oakville Galleries, Ontario (2019); Notes on Decomposition, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow (2016); 1975 – 2015, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney and Some Are Smarter Than Others, Gasworks, London (2014). Recent group exhibition include In Our Veins Flow Ink and Fire, 5th Kochi-Muziris Biennial, Kerala (2022); Is it morning for you yet?, The 58th Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (2022); Things Entangling, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2020); Phantom Limb, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai (2019); To Make Wrong/Right/Now, 2nd Honolulu Biennial, Hawaii (2019); Imagined Nations/ Modern Utopias, 12th Gwangju Biennial, Korea (2018).
Abad’s artworks are part of a number of important collections including Tate, UK; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Hawai’i State Art Museum, Honolulu; Singapore Art Museum; Kadist, Paris/San Francisco and Art Jameel, Dubai.
He is also the curator of the estate of his aunt, the Filipino American artist Pacita Abad. He has recently co-curated monographic exhibitions on Pacita Abad at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design Manila; Spike Island, Bristol and Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai. He also co-edited the publication Pacita Abad: A Million Things to Say in 2021.
Education
2002 - 2004 BA Fine Art, University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines
2004 - 2007 BA (hons) Painting & Printmaking, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow
2009 - 2012 Masters in Fine Art, Royal Academy Schools, London
Current and Forthcoming Projects
2024
Turner Prize, Tate Britain, London
Pio Abad: To Those Sitting in Darkness, Ashmolean NOW, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Rituals of Daily Life, The Collegium, Arevalo, Spain
Solo Exhibitions
2022
Fear of Freedom Makes Us See Ghosts, Ateneo Art Gallery, Manila
2020
Remember This House, Brent Biennial, London
2019
Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite, Kadist, San Francisco
Splendour, Oakville Galleries, Ontario
2017
COUNTERNARRATIVES, Silverlens, Manila
Not a Shield, but a Weapon, Art Basel Encounters, Hong Kong
2016
Notes on Decomposition, Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow
1975 – 2015, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney
2015
A Short History of Decay, Silverlens Gallery, Gillman Barracks, Singapore
2014
Some Are Smarter Than Others*, Gasworks, London
The Collection of Jane Ryan and William Saunders, Jorge B. Vargas Museum, Manila
2013
Every Tool Is A Weapon If You Hold It Right, Silverlens Gallery, Manila
For Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship! , Zabludowicz Collection, London
2012
Oh! Oh! Oh! (A Universal History of Infamy), PLAZAPLAZA, London
1986 – 2010, Royal Academy Schools Show, London
Dazzler, Duchy Gallery, Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
Translations: Afro Asian Poetics, curated by Zoe Whitley, Gillman Barracks, Singapore
2023
Small World, 13th Taipei Biennial, Taipei Fine Arts Museum
Guest Relations, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai
2022
In Our Veins Flow Ink and Fire, The 5th Kochi-Muziris Biennial, Kerala
Is it morning for you yet?, The 58th Carnegie International, Pittsburgh
The Ghosts of September, Papaya xLab, Roxas City, Panay Island
To A Faraway Friend: Beyond Afro-Southeast Asian Affinities, ASEAN Culture House, Busan
2021
Human Conditions of Clay, Chapter Gallery, Cardiff
FOR THE PHOENIX TO FIND ITS FORM IN US. On Restitution, Rehabilitation and Reparation, ifa Galerie and Savvy Contemporary, Berlin.
Desde el Salón (From the Living Room), Whitechapel Gallery, London.
2020
Things Entangling, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
2019
Phantom Limb, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai
52 Artists 52 Actions, Artspace, Sydney
Fairest of the Fair, Bellas Artes Projects, Manila
To Make Wrong/Right/Now, Honolulu Biennial, Hawaii
2018
General Rehearsal, Moscow Museum of Modern Art in collaboration with VAC Foundation and Kadist, Moscow
12th Gwangju Biennale: Imagined Borders, Gwangju, Korea
2017
Soil and Stone, Song and Soul, Para Site, Hong Kong
Recouvrir, Ensabler, Copier, Traduire, Restituer, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris
2016
Soil and Stone, Song and Soul, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila
Still (the) Barbarians, EVA International Biennial, Limerick, Ireland
South by Southeast: A Further Surface, Guangdong Times Museum, China
2015
Udlot-Udlot, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong
Corruption: Everybody Knows…, e-flux, New York City
The Vexed Contemporary, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila
South by Southeast, Osage Gallery, Hong Kong
2014
Conflict: Art and War, Contemporary Art Society, London
Bold Sopranos, Gallery Exit, Hong Kong
Pre-pop to Post-human: Collage in the Digital Age, Hayward Touring
2013
A Conspiracy of Detail, Mackintosh Museum, Glasgow
Reading Vogue, 68 Square Metres Art Space, Copenhagen
Market Forces: A Friction of Opposites, Osage Gallery, Hong Kong
2012
Dazed and Confused Emerging Artist Awards, London
London Open, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
Alptraum, Green Papaya Art Projects, Manila
Selected Awards and Residencies
2019
Artist-in-Residence, Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco
2015
Fernando Zobel Prize for Visual Art, Ateneo Art Awards, Winner
2012
Finalist, Dazed and Confused Emerging Artist Awards
Deutsche Bank Award for Creative Enterprise
Selected Lectures
2018
What to Let Go?, Para Site International Conference, Hong Kong
The Collection of Jane Ryan & William Saunders, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco