Art by Pacita Abad

Abad, born in the Philippines and later based in the US, developed a technique she called "trapunto painting," stitching and stuffing painted canvas into thick, padded, sculptural reliefs, adapting a quilting method into a completely original fine-art process. Over 32 years she made an estimated 4,500 works, fed by extensive travel with her economist husband through more than 60 countries. In 2004 she painted the 55-meter Alkaff Bridge in Singapore with 2,350 hand-painted circles, a public work still known locally as the city's "ArtBridge." A major posthumous retrospective opened at the Walker Art Center in 2023 and has since toured major US and Canadian museums.