mpabuelstudio


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Maria Patricia Abuel (she/they) is a Toronto/Tkarón:to born and raised Filipinx interdisciplinary artist, community worker, arts and culture educator, and administrator. She obtained an Honours Bachelor of Arts, Studio Specialist Degree at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Patricia has extensive experience with arts organizations and collectives across the GTA including the KAPISANAN Philippine Centre for Arts and Culture, Workman Arts, Images Festival, and East End Arts. They are also a workshop facilitator for elementary and high schools in the GTA to teach students about Filipino arts and culture. She is a co-founder of habi habi po, a collective of Toronto-based Filipino/a/x artists focusing on building community through traditional textile art practices to preserve Philippine cultural heritage and revive ancestral connections. Abuel’s work has been exhibited at Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Artspace Peterborough,  Gallery 1313, among others.


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For interests in collaborating or any other inquiries, please email mpabuelstudio@gmail.com

@mpabuelstudio


Photo by  Myuri Srikugan

Artist Statement

My artistic practice explores the intersections of family history, memory, and the body as a means to re/connect with inherited cultures while challenging societal expectations. Through an interdisciplinary approach, I draw on diverse mediums, including performance art, video art, photography, drawing, and textile to navigate the complex relationship between the personal and the collective, the past and the present.

Playfulness and documentation are central to my work, serving as tools to preserve, honour, and reinterpret traditions especially in relation to the body and space. My Filipina, racialized, femme body is a site of vulnerability in my practice, offering a raw, visceral connection to themes of identity and heritage. Through movement, gesture, and ritual, I engage with the intimate and often fragile spaces where personal experience intersects with cultural history.

I view my practice as a dialogue between inherited narratives and contemporary realities to create a space for reflection, resistance, and reimagination. I strive to create works that are both deeply personal and universally resonant, inviting viewers to question and redefine the ways we perceive identity, belonging, and cultural heritage.