Pio abad biography books
Pio Abad UK, b.
Pio Abad’s work is concerned with the social and political signification of things. Deeply informed by the modern history of the Philippines, where the artist was born and raised, his work uses strategies of appropriation to mine alternative or repressed historical events, unravel official accounts and draw out threads of complicity between incidents, ideologies and people.
He began his art studies at the University of the Philippines (–) before receiving a BA from Glasgow School of Art in and an MA from the Royal Academy Schools, London, in
He has had solo exhibitions at Kadist, San Francisco; Oakville Galleries, Ontario; Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow; 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney; Gasworks, London and Jorge B. Vargas Museum, Manila. In , he will have a solo exhibition at the Ateneo Art Gallery, Manila entitled Fear of Freedom Makes Us See Ghosts, a survey of Abad’s year project examining the legacy of the Marcos dictatorship.
He has recently participated group exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Jameel Art Centre, Dubai; the 2nd Honolulu Biennial, Hawaii; the 12th Gwangju Biennial, Gwangju; Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow; Kadist, Paris; Para Site, Hong Kong. He will also be part of the 5 Kochi Muziris Biennial in
Abad’s works are part of a number of collections including Tate, UK; Kadist, Paris/San Francisco and Art Jameel, Dubai. He has also curated exhibitions at Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila; Spike Island, Bristol and Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai.
Born in Manila, Philippines in
Lives and works in London, UK
Education
| MFA, Masters in Fine Art, Royal Academy Schools, London, UK | |
BA, Painting & Printmaking, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, UK | |
BA, Fine Art, University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines |
Sol Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 10 February - 8 September To Those Sitting in Darkness features new drawings and objects by London-based artist Pio Abad. Deeply informed by the history of the world and particularly the Philippines, where Abad was born and raised, his works draw out transnational lines between historical incidents and people, and our lives today. Concerned with colonial history and cultural loss, Abad’s poetic, personal and political art offers a powerful critique of the way many museums collect, display and interpret the objects they hold and questions prevailing perceptions and perspectives. The title is a reference to American writer Mark Twain’s satire ‘To the Person Sitting in Darkness’ (), which strongly criticised imperialism. The exhibition explores, identifies and illuminates objects Abad found in the rich and varied collections of the University of Oxford; his focus on those where their histories have been marginalised, unexplained, ignored or forgotten. His intricately detailed creations are displayed together with other artists’ work alongside ‘diasporic’ objects researched and chosen by Abad from a range of Oxford institutions’ collections and archives, including the Pitt Rivers Museum, St John’s College and Blenheim Palace. A major piece is the large-sized drawing ‘I am singing a song that can only be born after losing a country’ (), based on one of the most important objects in the Ashmolean’s founding collection: ‘Powhatan’s mantle’ (c–), a monumental deer-hide hanging with precise shell beadwork ornaments dates to the early s and the first period of contact between Indigenous North American peoples and British colonists. The mantle is named for Wahunsenacawh (c–), the chief of the Powhatan people, and also known as the father of Pocahontas. Using high-resolution photographic scans of the object, Abad has drawn the underside of the mantle to scale. He describes the imaginary map-like work as ‘an atlas for man In his series, Notes on Decomposition, Abad attempts to map our current state of cultural disenchantment through objects bought, sold and sequestered from to the present – objects that embody specific moments of political and economic decay over the past twenty years, to become an inventory of neoliberal fantasy through decorative things. Since , Abad has been interested in the auction as a site for excavating these narratives and the auction catalogue as a document where the private histories of public personages are laid bare. The pair of elephant figurines depicted in Notes on Decomposition (Lot no. ) and described in the Christie’s auction catalogue as Chinese export Canton famille rose porcelain elephant-form candle holders, once occupied a pride of place in Ronald Reagan’s private residence at the White House and were subsequently auctioned off in , shortly after the death of Nancy Reagan. The Reagans had a vast collection of elephant figurines, the animal that has been conscripted by the Republican Party as its official symbol since Pio Abad(b. , Manila, the Philippines) Lives and works in London, United Kingdom Pio Abad’s practice is concerned with the social and political signification of things. His work, in a range of media including textiles, drawing, installation and photography, uses strategies of appropriation to mine alternative or repressed historical events, unravel official accounts and draw out threads of complicity between incidents, ideologies and people. Often taking on the form of domestic accessories, Abad’s artworks glide seamlessly between these histories, enacting quasi-fictional combinations with their leftovers. Pio Abad began his art studies at the University of the Philippines before receiving a BA from Glasgow School of Art and an MA from the Royal Academy Schools, London. He has recently exhibited at Art Basel Encounters, Hong Kong (); Para Site, Hong Kong (); Kadist, Paris (); Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow (); 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney (); EVA International Biennial, Limerick (); e-flux, New York City (); Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong (); Museum of Contemporary Art and Design Manila (); Gasworks, London () and Jorge B. Vargas Museum, Manila (). Frances Wadsworth Jones(b. , London, United Kingdom) Lives and works in London, United Kingdom Frances Wadsworth Jones is a jewelry designer, maker and educator. She received her MA in Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork and Jewelry from the Royal College of Art in Recent projects include: Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite, Kadist, San Francisco (); Fairest of the Fair, Bellas Artes Projects, Manila (); Make Wrong/Right/Now, the 2nd Honolulu Biennial(); Fabricate, Vitsoe, Munich Jewellery Week (); Rock Vault, London Fashion Week (); The Violet Crab, David Roberts Art Foundation (); Made in London: Jewellery Now, The Museum of London, (). Wadsworth Jones’ works are as eccentric as they are exquisite. From the surreal minutiae of nature rendered in carat gol
Pio Abad
Pio Abad UK, b.
Artist Biography