Elmer Misa Borlongan was born on January 7,1967 and is a prominent contemporary Filipino painter best known for his distinctive use of figurative expressionism.
15 Facts About Elmer Borlongan
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Elmer Borlongan rose to prominence as a recipient of the Cultural Center of the Philippines' Thirteen Artist Awards in 1994, and his works have since become one of the most widely exhibited and most sought-after at auctions among Southeast Asian artists.
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Elmer Borlongan was born at 7:25 AM on January 7,1967, at De Ocampo Memorial Medical Center in Santa Mesa, Manila to chemist Pascual Garcia Elmer Borlongan of Calumpit, Bulacan and Dolores Pido Misa of Mandaluyong, and grew up in the Nueve de Pebrero area of Mandaluyong.
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Elmer Borlongan 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.
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Elmer Borlongan came of age in a period of significant social tumult in the Philippines - contributing to the social awareness inherent in Elmer Borlongan's work.
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Elmer Borlongan enrolled at the University of the Philippines' College of Fine Arts in 1983 and majored in painting.
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Elmer Borlongan got his bachelor's degree in Fine Arts, major in painting, in 1987.
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Elmer Borlongan immediately found himself using his art to engage the Filipino's social awareness.
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Elmer Borlongan's career got a jumpstart when his painting "Rehimen" won the second prize in the Metrobank Annual National Painting Competition in 1988, giving his works significant exposure and positioning him as an up-and coming artist.
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Elmer Borlongan recalls being inspired by speakers, most notably the Chinese pro-democracy activists from Tiananmen Square.
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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.
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Elmer 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.
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Elmer 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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In 2002, the Elmer Borlongan couple decided to move from their residence in Nueve de Pebrero, Mandaluyong, and settled in San Antonio, Zambales.
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For Elmer Borlongan, the move meant an expansion in terms of figurative subjects - where once his work featured people in mostly urban settings, his works from this later period began to feature people from the countryside as well.