BIOGRAPHY Widely defined by her use of color, something she remained adamant about from her early studies, Pacita Abad (1946-2004) pioneered new forms of materiality in her work, illustrated in one instance by her widely celebrated trapunto paintings, a form of quilted painting the artist originated by stitching and stuffing her painted canvases instead of stretching them over a frame. Accumulating materials, techniques, and subjects from her vast travels, oftentimes within the same composition, her work predates contemporary discourses around postcolonial feminisms, globalization and transnationalism, offering an intuitive understanding of the mutability and heritability of traditions in the places she lived. Abad is the subject of a major traveling retrospective, opening at the Walker Arts Center in 2023. ENDLESS BLUES SERIES Made in the aftermath of 9/11 and her cancer diagnosis, Abad's Endless Blues series turns entirely toward the abstract at the end of her life. In the face of the immensity of these developments, Abad responded to her emotions by turning inward and spending hours in her studio, listening to blues music as she painted. Works in Endless Blues are characterized by the melancholic and nostalgic trance-like rhythm of the music that has been a constant inspiration for her. For Abad, Endless Blues is like the Blues, "always strong, sometimes sad, a bit nostalgic, and very colorful."