Pio Abad in the 61st La Biennale di Venezia

Tina Kim Gallery congratulates artist Pio Abad (b. 1983, Manila; lives and works in London) on his participation in the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, titled In Minor Keys and organized by late curator Koyo Kouoh. Abad was selected to present  an installation of new and recent works in the Central Pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale, which highlight the artist’s interest in probing colonial museum collections and enduring cultural narratives. The exhibition opens to the public today, Saturday, May 9, 2026.

Abad’s works selected for In Minor Keys showcase his rigorous, creative exploration of histories of extraction and exploitation. Through drawing, Abad examines the colonial histories of objects, using his pen to trace the displacement and dispossession of looted antiquities and peoples. In Venice, Abad debuts a brand new work, Banua (2026), which engages with the Chicago Field Museum’s extensive collection of Philippine artifacts. With this work, Abad abstracts the original subject, creating something anew that suggests something archipelagic or cosmological.  

Along with Banua, Abad presents a selection of works from his acclaimed, ongoing series 1897.76.36.18.6 (2024–), which features meticulous drawings that juxtapose the Benin bronzes held in the British Museum with quotidian objects from his southeast London home. Abad debuted his 1897.76.36.18.6 series at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford in 2024 in an exhibition titled To Those Sitting in Darkness, which was shortlisted for the 2024 Turner Prize and presented at the Tate Britain, London in 2024–2025. Now in Venice, Abad debuts a number of new drawings in this series. This body of works on paper highlights deep entanglements of personal and imperial histories. Abad’s home sits on the former British Army Grand Stores, historically a storage facility for British Army equipment and later a staging ground for objects from the 1897 punitive expedition to the Kingdom of Benin. In his drawings, Abad pairs the Benin Bronzes with personal belongings of equivalent scale – a gesture of comparison that re-enchants the looted objects with their lost ritual and spiritual potential by situating them within an extended matrix of everyday objects that can carry profound meaning. 

Also featured in the In Minor Keys are larger scale drawings, including I am singing a song that can only be born after losing a country (2023), which references artifacts housed in Ashmolean Museum’s collection. In this work, Abad reproduces at scale four deer skins, sewn into a cloak and embellished with seashells. A gift from the paramount chief of the Powhatan people, the object represents one of the earliest known encounters between Indigenous peoples of North America and British colonists. Depicting the underside of the animal hide with red colored pencil, Abad reveals an abstract, topographical pattern in the organic material. The title of this work is adapted from a poem by Joy Harjo, the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States.

To coincide with the Venice Biennale, Tina Kim Gallery will present several works on paper by Abad at Frieze New York, on view May 13–17.

About the Artist

Pio Abad’s artistic practice is concerned with the personal and political entanglements of objects. His wide-ranging body of work, encompassing drawing, installation and archival intervention, examines the legacies of colonialism, political trauma and personal memory. Deeply rooted in the sociopolitical history of the Philippines and his family’s role in the pro-democracy movement, his works reconfigures symbols of power and loss into poetic acts of resistance.

Abad’s recent exhibitions include: In Interludes and Transitions / "في الحِلّ والترحال", The 3rd Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, Riyadh (2026); 2024 Turner Prize, Tate Britain, London (2024); To Those Sitting in Darkness, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (2024); Small World, The 13th Taipei Biennial, Taipei; Fear of Freedom Makes Us See Ghosts, Ateneo Art Gallery, Manila (2022); 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); Phantom Limb, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai (2019) and Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite, Kadist, San Francisco (2019).

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 was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2024.

Abad is also the curator of the estate of his aunt, the late Filipino-American artist Pacita Abad. He has co-curated monographic exhibitions on Pacita Abad at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design Manila and Spike Island, Bristol. He also co-edited the publication Pacita Abad: A Million Things to Say in 2021.