The exhibit features over 200 works from 1979 to 2015, by retelling stories of everyday life based on what he sees in his surroundings. The murals, paintings, and drawings that fill the walls of this exhibition reflect on Borlongan’s practice and continued commitment to his art, vision, and powerful visual narratives.

Growing up in the backstreets of Mandaluyong, Borlongan illustrates a ‘mise-en-scène’ of the urban milieu of the underprivileged, the proletariat, and the have-nots of society. Notable in his works are his steadfast characters—the street vendors, sidewalk beggars, assiduous disabled men, and scenes that portray local traditions and cultural practices that engage society today.

With an extraordinary eye for the ordinary, Elmer Borlongan re-presents the Filipino going about life. A tradition that goes back to: Damian Domingo, Jose Honorato Lozano and Justiniano Asuncion whose depictions of 19th century Philippine life have come down to us as Tipos del Pais (Country Types), but where the founding fathers of this style of painting left off Borlongan set off inspired by 20th century masters: Onib Olmedo, Danilo Dalena, and Jaime de Guzman breathing new life into genre with: colour, form, and a trademark humour that elevates the familiar into Art.

Inspired by the work of National Artist Carlos V. Francisco best known for his murals that highlighted slices of life from Philippine history and his own backyard in Angono, Borlongan drew his early imagery from the backstreets of Nueve de Febrero in Mandaluyong, his coming of age, in life and art, formed by the political upheavals that saw the beginning of the Marcos dictatorship in 1972 and its end in 1986.

From EDSA I, II, and III to Duterte, Borlongan brought his art from urban to rural and back to the urban such that he returned to the place where he started but saw it anew, like the first time producing past, present and future merged seamlessly in his works.

His images sing. Their melodies cover: music, folk religion, journeys and destinations, people like animals and animals like people, people at work, individuals in isolation or fused in unity, people at play, the dismembered, disabled, and dispossessed. In all things, good and bad, Borlongan’s steady refrain is hope.

In 2017, Borlongan passed half a century, a time to look back and forward in life and art. All the works in this retrospective draw our attention to the ordinary where he hints, visually, at that which makes us Filipino.

ELMER BORLONGAN: An Extraordinary Eye for the Ordinary is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila from January 22 until March 28, 2018, with the support of Pioneer Insurance and Asia Coatings Phils., Inc.