ELMER BORLONGAN

Elmer Misa Borlongan is a prominent contemporary Filipino painter best known

for his distinctive use of figurative expressionism. Borlongan was on January 7, 1967 at
De Ocampo Memorial Medical Center in Santa Mesa, Manila to chemist Pascual Garcia
Borlongan of Calumpit, Bulacan and Dolores Pido Misa of Mandaluyong, and grew up in
the Nueve de Pebrero area of Mandaluyong City. His father Pascual encouraged
Borlongan's artistic pursuits at a very young age, encouraging him to draw everyday
objects from various angles.
He rose to prominence as a recipient of the Cultural Center of the Philippines' Thirteen
Artist Awards in 1994,[3] and his works have since become one of the most widely
exhibited and most sought-after at auctions among Southeast Asian artists.
He is married to fellow artist Plet Bolipata.
He began his formal art education in 1978, at the young age of eleven, taking
up Fernando Sena's art classes offered under the auspices of Children’s Museum and
Library, Inc (CMLI).
Recalling Sena's influence in a 2012 interview, Borlongan recounts:
"It was the painter Fernando Sena who introduced me to the art world. While I
was studying under him at the Children's Museum and Library, Inc. (CMLI) in 1978,
he would open the pages of the encyclopedia and show in class the works of his
favorite Dutch painters Rembrandt and Frans Hals.
[Fernando Sena...] taught me the basics of drawing and painting. It was a solid
foundation to prepare me to the direction of where I want my art to proceed. All

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 of his students imitated his style to understand the techniques he was teaching.
It was up to the individual to find his own identity."
Sena also contributed to Borlongan's artistic development by convincing him to enroll in
a fine arts course instead of taking up architecture as he had originally planned.[4]
Borlongan's exposure to the poor areas in Tondo in Manila and in Montalban and
Antipolo in Rizal province where he apprenticed under Sena during workshops would
help provide Borlongan with much of the imagery that would become the subjects of his
later works.[2]
Borlongan came of age in a period of significant social tumult in the Philippines -
[2]
contributing to the social awareness inherent in Borlongan's work. 1970 saw the
beginning of the so-called "First Quarter Storm"; 1971 saw the Plaza Miranda Bombing;
September 1972 saw Ferdinand Marcos' proclamation of Martial Law; 1983 saw the
assassination of Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr.; and 1986 saw the overthrow of the Marcos
government via the so-called EDSA revolution - just a year shy of Borlongan's
graduation from college.

Undergraduate period at the University of the

Philippines Diliman
Borlongan enrolled at the University of the Philippines' College of Fine Arts in
1983 and majored in Painting.
Here Borlongan became a founding member of the famed Grupong Salingpusa,
initially an informal group of young student artists which would later become significant
voices in the Philippine contemporary art movement, including such figures as Joy
Mallari, Karen Flores and Manny Garibay.
A subset of Grupong Salingpusa, consisting of Borlongan, Mallari, Flores, Mark
Justiniani, and Federico Slevert, later came together to form the Sanggawa Art
Collective in 1994.
In his second year in college, Borlongan was selected as a delegate to the ASEAN Youth
Painting Workshop and Exhibition, which was held at the National Art Gallery in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia. "Being a delegate exposed me to new developments in Southeast
Asian art," Borlongan recalls. The Filipino delegates later held a homecoming exhibit at
the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
Borlongan got his bachelor's degree in Fine Arts, major in Painting, in 1987.

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 Elmer Borlongan’ s Awards
The relative success of the Philippines 2000 platform instituted by
president Fidel V. Ramos in 1992 created an environment where young artists like
Borlongan could find more opportunities. But the platform's thrusts towards
industrialization and economic liberalization presented causes for concern - themes
which continued to find their way into the themes of Borlongan's work.
In 1994, the Cultural Center of the Philippines recognized Borlongan with the
Thirteen Artists Award,[3] an award that honors artists who "take the chance and risk
to restructure, restrengthen, and renew art making and art thinking.”
The following year, 1995, Borlongan agreed to serve as Artist-in-Residence
at CASA San Miguel, San Antonio, Zambales. Here, he met Plet Bolipata, whose brother,
acclaimed violinist Alfonso “Coke” Bolipata, had founded the art center.
In 1996, he took up a posting as Artist-in-Residence in ARCUS Ibaraki, Japan.
Borlongan received a lot of exposure during the 1998 Philippine Centennial
celebrations, notably being part of "At Home and Abroad: 20 Contemporary Filipino
Artists", a centennial celebration exhibit that opened first at the Asian Art Museum in
San Francisco and then moved to the Houston Art Museum and the East-West Center
Museum in Honolulu before finally closing at the Metropolitan Museum in Manila.
Borlongan exhibited widely in the late 1990s and around the early 2000s, with
shows in Tokyo, New York, Sydney, Singapore, Irvine, Brisbane, Honolulu, and Kuala
Lumpur, among others.

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 Elmer Borlongan’s Paintings
The Manila-based artist often refers to Filipino culture in his paintings, drawing from
everyday scenes of local urban life, which sharply depict an imperfect world. Borlongan’s
work is a favorite among collectors and at auctions. In his first major work, Rehimen
(1988), he uses bold brushwork to manipulate the Marlboro emblem, which is guarded by
a pack of dogs as an emaciated figure lays in despair in the foreground. The painting
represents the marginalized Filipino people who are living in poverty, with no way of
moving forward. In February 2018, Borlongan celebrated a retrospective of 25 years in
art, showcasing more than 150 paintings and 50 drawings featured in the Metropolitan
Museum of Manila.

Pop-Cola Kid

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 Pag-Ahon

Joy Ride

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 Mask of Santol

Hating Kapatid

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 Batang EDSA

Shelter

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 Rueda

Walang Iwanan

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 Gabay

Kapit-Bisig

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 References:

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/lifestyle/artandculture/350029/art-review-
elmer-borlongan-and-the-art-of-the-daily-grind/story/

https://theculturetrip.com/asia/philippines/articles/top-10-filipino-contemporary-
artists-where-to-find-them/

https://www.spot.ph/arts-culture/art-exhibits/72561/elmer-borlongan-met-
museum-a00171-20180111

http://www.artplus.ph/features/pintokyo-heralds-filipino-artistry-in-japan

https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/9829/elmer-borlongan%E2%80%99s-
%E2%80%98batang-edsa%E2%80%99-is-face-of-manilart-2011/

https://www.spot.ph/arts-culture/art-exhibits/72561/elmer-borlongan-met-
museum-a00171-20180111

https://www.rappler.com/life-and-style/arts-and-culture/50894-elmer-
borlongan-ai-weiwei-national-arts-month-ayala-museum

Submitted by: Mangulabnan, Clarissa Section: IC2MA