Bravo to Elmer Borlongan's first solo exhibit in Paris, "When Time Stood Still".
The exhibit presented 15 paintings and monotypes.
Béatrice de Rochebouet wrote, "Produced during the Covid years, his new series draws on his past experiences and observations but is more introspective. What is important to each of us after the pandemic we experienced? What is the meaning of life from now on," these are all questions that led Elmer Borlongan, 55 years old, with a voluntary face animated by a bright smile, to push his work further... The colors are dark like the power of the darkness of the tormented landscapes of Evrard Munch, the distorted figures like the tortured bodies of Egon Shiele that the triumphant suffering metamorphoses into pure beauty."
with Emong and Plet at the opening, his self portrait behind
What a show! Congratulations Emong on your first twenty years retrospective "In City and Country (1992-2012)" at the Ayala Museum.
44 paintings, each has a story to tell. If you sit down with him, he'll tell you the story and inspiration behind each painting. For instance, the 1992 'Birheng Walang Dambana' (Virgin without an altar) is about his friend whose girlfriend ditched him for a rich guy. He found an apt title from Victor Wood's song of the same title.
The 1994 painting "Lumang Litrato" which has never been exhibited before, is about a newly widowed elderly man whom he met and shared with him that he misses his wife.
Birheng Walang Dambana, 1992
Lumang Littrato (1994)
Emong's tatay with his eacher
The title of the show "In City and Country" best describes the source of inspiration of his works - basically, the people that surround him and the hustle and bustle of his milieu. I was able to witness his genius [and also Plet's] from 1998 to 2002 when they were still living in the City, in Nueve de Pebrero in Mandaluyong where he grew up; and from 2002 to now, in Zambales, in the farm of Plet's family.
He said in an interview about his art "The human figure continues to be the focus of my works. The sound and fury of Manila street scenes have been the fitting accompaniment to the figures that graced my works throughout the years."
Self portrati in ID Picture (1995)
Driver's Lounge (2011)
San Miguel Fluvial Parade (2010)
Of his life in Zambales, he said "I paint in a studio in the middle of a mango farm surrounded by the sound of a sometimes wailing sea and the chirping of the birds. My immediate environment within the home and in the outskirts of the farm presents an engaging scenario of various characters that I have mingled with. Not to mention my exposure to all my brother-in-law's pupils...There are religious rituals that give pomp and circumstance to the practice of the faith. And of course, there is the sea, a character in itself, that is sometimes disconcerting when my wife worries about "imagined tsumanis in her head" but is a refreshing blue field of delight on hot summer days."
Time flies by so fast. I remember meeting Emong for the first time in 1996. I was watching the concert of the Bolipata brothers in Sta. Ana Park and Plet introduced him to me. I was actually wondering what she was doing in Manila. The last time I saw her, she was happily studying at The Arts Student League and helping out as a paralegal in New York. She said she waiting for her US working visa.
the painting that started it all, Gabay (1994)
The following year in April, Plet was still in town. She invited me to CASA San Miguel, the arts center her brother Coke built in their farm, to join the 2nd Pundaquit Earth Day Festival. Both she and Emong were commissioned by Coke to do a mural. Both were holed up in Zambales as artists-in-residence. Plet's mural was to grace the entrance foyer while Emong's 13 x 18 feet mural was the centerpiece of the Ramon Corpus Concert Hall.
I can't forget that weekend. That Friday evening before heading out to Zambales, Plet was in tears because the star of the festival had an emergency and backed out. That meant, CASA didn't have a folk-rock concert to cap the festival. We found out that Joey Ayala was having a concert in Ayala and rushed to him. Plet, usually shy, gathered her wits and all thick-skinned, walked up to Joey after his performance. He must have sympathized with Plet who was still in tears because the next day, he showed up with his band in CASA.
So, the festival was a success... and the rest is history as the saying goes. By the way, Plet did get her visa, nonetheless stayed on. Of their first meeting, Emong said -
Emong's "In City and Country" exhibit will be on view until April 6, 2014. Don't miss it!
N.B. here's a painting of one of our dinners in Nueve de Pebrero (not exhibited, owner: Arthur).
Plet's Le Boudoir Rouge Love Seat and Emong's Escape Artist
When the Earth Smelled of Water is husband and wife team Emong Borlongan and Plet Bolipata's latest show at the Alliance Francaise de Manille. The two have been married for the last twenty years and hied off in Zambales where they actually met.
Most of Emong's artworks depict life in the fishing village of San Antonio while Plet's works are totally new. Well, I haven't seen these seats before. They are functional sculpture sofa pieces made out of resin, crochet, steel and even broken glass.
Note that she used the same mold for her ongoing show at Bonifacio Global City's offsite gallery called imagiNATION. It is an outdoor installation featuring 7 to 12-foot animal sculptures.
Emong's Dynamite Kid
Here's what Rene Guatio wrote about the couple's latest project:
Based in San Antonio, Zambales, in a seaside mango orchard and art center, the artist couple Elmer Borlongan and Plet Bolipata bring their visions of creation, their celebrations of life to the city: colorful canvases imbued with the refreshing and life-giving blessings of the sea and water, resin vessels that allude to the ark, and the great deluge that drowned the earth, so that life may be renewed.
Emong's Melancholia
Emong highlights various scenes - a 'chicken fight' in the water, a child drawing water from a well, fishermen with their nets, an escape artist in a water container, a woman wading into the ocean, a scene of melancholy in a bath tub - each an allusion to water and the sea, reflecting the artist's signature humor, wit, and deep understanding of the human character. He says: "We are drawn to water because we live close to the sea."
Plet's Le Taxi Sofa
Plet always injects a fresh and playful sensibility to her art, which includes oils, collages, naif figures, and lately, colorful mosaics of animals. Her metal and tile mosaics of zoo animals about to be installed at Global City are complemented by the resin sofas in this show that were inspired by Holly Golightly's bathtub sofa from Breakfast at Tiffany's.
The sofas represent vessels that save us from the deluge, their colors reminding us of the rainbow that symbolizes God's promise, and our hope. She hopes that people "can relax as the stresses and strains of their daily lives subside, and take the time to enjoy and appreciate the preciousness of life."
Bravo Plet and Emong! The show will run until May 3, 2012.
With artist Plet setaing on her Le Peacock Sofa
Here's some shots of Plet's gigantic steel animal sculptures at the offsite gallery in Bonifacio Global City, 26th Street corner 7th Ave:
