Pio Abad

Pio Abad mines alternative or repressed historical events, and brings them together with particular aesthetic phenomena, in order to create artworks that operate across a range of registers. A work might investigate cultural events or personae, delving into their histories and drawing out associations between them and other moments, incidents or people. For example, in 2012, Abad constructed an installation based on the figures of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, the first couple of the Philippines from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, who were in power at the time of the artist's birth. Through a series of works in various media including some of the Marcos's personal effects, sculpture, painting, screen-printing and text, Abad explored their personal and political mythologies and through them, alluded to aspects of national and global politics from the 1980s to today. Abad's work was included in the London Open, Whitechapel Art Gallery, 2012 and he was a finalist in the Converse/Dazed and Confused Emerging Artist Award, 2012.