Untitled
signed and dated 1997 (lower left)
charcoal on paper
27” x 21” (69 cm x 53 cm





WRITE UPCCP Thirteen Artist Award Awardee in 1994, Elmer Borlongan’s work in depicting the lumpen, the homeless, and the children gained him notoriety in the 1990s. Acutely attuned to the urban Manila, his pieces feature the quintessential hardships and resilience that Filipinos possess. His stint with the activist group Artista ng Bayan in the late 1980s as well as his participation in the young artist group Salingpusa and later, Sanggawa, molded not only Borlongan’s art but his socio-political leaning. In this 1997 work, he portrays his subject, a man with his back to the viewer, in his distinct art style of bald eyes, enlarged eyes, and elongated limbs. He uses a simple background composition that highlights what Diane Onate says as Borlongan’s “extraordinary eye for the ordinary.” (Hannah Valiente)