Pacita Abad

As I’ve stated before, I’m a sucker for textile arts. So I was in heaven when I finally got to check out Pacita Abad’s retrospective at PS1.

Her floor-to-ceiling quiltwork is bold, not just in its use of color, but also in subject matter. I absolutely fell in love with her dizzying stitching and her use of homespun-feeling details like buttons, sequins, and rickrack.

I’ve always said that my favorite works of art are pieces that I feel like I could stare at forever and continually find something I never noticed before. Abad’s work completely fits this bill. Her pieces feel like you’re being devoured by them as you take them in. I could have spent days lost among all the little details of her work. Just take a look at the details on this piece she titled “Marcos and His Cronies”:

You gotta love those button toenails!