We met Filipino artist Abi Dionisio at FOCUS Art Fair London 2025, where she was represented by ONE EAST ASIA, and presented her new series called When Threads Take Turns. Her work immediately attracts the eye: at first glance, her paintings appear to be complex embroidered fabric. Step closer, and the illusion dissolves; what looks like thread is actually paint, executed so precisely that you find yourself blinking twice. It’s a clever sleight of hand, but one that opens onto meaningful themes of memory as well as identity.

Dionisio’s practice sits at the intersection of painting, embroidery, and mixed media, and her work is influenced by her own experiences. “For me, it’s about memory; how it comes and goes unexpectedly,” she explains. “Sometimes memories swarm us all at once, sometimes they unsettle us, and other times they bring a sense of calm. In this piece, Beasts in Bloom, I used more vivid colours to express that feeling – like an ecosystem of emotions, where everything is alive and constantly shifting.” Her works are alive, beating with the rhythms of family and belonging. Birds, dogs, forest animals, and butterflies recur as motifs, I would say, metaphors for loyalty, loss, memory, and journeys, whether it’s literal or emotional.

Her ongoing series, When Threads Take Turns, continues and expands this exploration. Each piece pairs embroidery with a painted counterpart, replicating the knots, tangles, and reverse sides of the fabric with painstaking detail. “I pour a lot of my personal experiences into my art – it’s how I work through my emotions. By expressing them through my work, I’m able to release something within myself; it brings me a sense of balance and clarity,” Dionisio says. The work is simultaneously technical and tender: the stitching recalls centuries of domestic labour, historically relegated to women, while the paintings transform it into a contemporary language of philosophical and feminist reflection.

And while discussing the painting work, I asked how long it actually takes to create such incredible art, and Dionisio confesses, “I can’t say there’s an exact routine – I sometimes take breaks and come back to my work later. There are moments when I’m just not in the mood to create, but eventually, I have to push through that. As artists, we need to stay consistent, even when inspiration doesn’t come easily. We also have people who are expecting you to deliver. If you add up all the hours, it took me around two to two and a half months. It’s a long process.”

Her earlier series, Backbone & Stitches, honoured her father. “It’s incredible to me that something like embroidery, which feels small and domestic, can become a piece of art,” she says. “Every stitch carries time, thought, and emotion. It’s the unseen work that often holds everything together.”

Dionisio’s engagement with colour and composition is equally intentional. In her butterfly painting, Pattern of Becoming, she contrasts vibrant pinks, purples, and reds on one side with more subdued browns and greens on the other. “There always needs to be a hierarchy in the image,” she explains.

“If you look closely, the butterfly has many different colours, and I also added flowers to the composition. When you first look at the painting, your eyes are drawn to one side – the brighter part. That’s the focus. Then, as you step back, your eyes begin to roam around to the darker areas.”

I guess that’s just how our senses work; we naturally notice the brighter elements first. That balance is very important to see the art in different ways.

Discussing her embroidery, Dionisio explains that she draws on fabric first, mapping light and dark values before stitching entirely by hand – using DMC thread, typically reserved for cross-stitch, to achieve both speed and quality. “If I used a machine, it wouldn’t have the same character. Every hand stitch carries presence,” she says. Even the smallest choices, the thickness of a thread, the layering of paint, are enriched with meaning.

Dionisio’s work reflects a broader phenomenon: the rise of Asian contemporary art in the West. Artists from across the continent are not only presenting technical genius but also imprinting thought-provoking, emotional, and cultural narratives into their work. There is a soulfulness in the work, an insistence that art carries memory and social consciousness. In Dionisio’s hands, embroidery and painting become a language that conveys personal history and universal significance.

In Between Instincts, one of the most striking pieces in her show, a young woman stands windblown in profile, eyes closed, surrounded by animals, both wild and tame. It’s an image of contrast – instinct and reason, vulnerability and strength coexisting, perhaps a metaphor for the complex realities of human experience. “I always want to capture the moments that are unseen but essential,” Dionisio says. “What’s hidden often carries the most truth. Every stitch, every brushstroke, is a record of time, labour, and love.”

Through her work, Dionisio reminds us that contemporary Asian art is not only a display of technical mastery but also something genuinely human. When Threads Take Turns shows exactly that: a powerful insistence that the unseen, the delicate, and the painstaking deserve attention and reflection.

Written and interviewed by Maggie Gogler

Featured image courtesy of ONE EAST ASIA / Abi Dionisio

_{*We would like to thank ONE EAST ASIA for their support in arranging this interview, and Abi Dionisio for taking the time to speak with us.}

_{View of the Arts is an online publication dedicated to films, music, and the arts, with a strong focus on the Asian entertainment industry. With rich content already available to our readers, we aim to expand our reach and grow alongside our audience by delving deeper into emerging platforms such as K-pop and Asian music more broadly. At the same time, we remain committed to exploring the vibrant and ever-evolving global landscape of film, music, and the arts, celebrating the immense talent and creativity that define these industries worldwide.}