Although not acquainted with each other, the Indonesian artist Umi Dachlan and the Spanish-Filipino artist Fernando Zóbel were interested in how abstraction offered meaningful and novel ways of interpreting the world. Instead of focusing on their national and regional identities, the two were captured by the idea of universality. Both artists felt that their modes of abstraction could speak to a global population, without any reference to specific locations, events or figures. Their practices prompt the question: What is it that connects us all?
