Under her own sun

For International Women’s Month, Plet Bolipata stands not in anyone’s shadow, but under her own sun.

In a cultural landscape long shaped by male figures, she joins the lineage of Filipina artists who have insisted on authorship, imagination and autonomy. Married to one of the country’s most prominent painters - Elmer Borlongan, she understands intimately what it means to stand beside a celebrated artist — yet her practice has always moved to its own rhythm.

About her latest exhibition, The time has come, Bolipata said, “To talk of many things” is less a whisper than a declaration: a Filipina artist claiming her space, story and her evolution in her own terms.

There are works from a recent period of discovery in New York, alongside paintings drawn from memory and fantasy. Three canvases revisit her childhood, growing up among prodigious siblings. A trio of oval works, framed in patterned cloth of her choosing, imagines an intimate kinship with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera — a meditation on womanhood, authorship, fertility and the complexities of standing beside a celebrated artist-husband while cultivating one’s own voice.

Storytelling anchors Bolipata’s practice, while her bold colors heighten emotion, with blue suggesting ascent, orange a steady grounding. Under her own sun, she claims her voice with confidence and conviction, shaping her own narrative in her own terms.

“The time has come,” Bolipata said, “to talk of many things.”

The exhibit runs 14 to 31 March, with viewing hours from 1 to 6 p.m., Mondays to Fridays, at Vetted, Unit 126, Mile Long Building, Amorsolo Street corner V. Rufino Street, Makati City.