Imelda Cajipe-Endaya and the art of women’s resistance

For more than five decades, Imelda Cajipe-Endaya has made art from the materials and realities of Filipino life. Woven bamboo, crocheted lace, patterned cloth, domestic objects and historical images enter her paintings, prints, assemblages, and installations, turning the familiar into expressions of memory, protest and hope. At the center of this practice are women—not merely as subjects, but as witnesses, thinkers and agents of social change.

Cajipe-Endaya was declared National Artist for Visual Arts in September 2026, becoming the first woman to receive the country’s highest artistic honor in this field. Also declared National Artists were Gabriel “Gabby” Formoso in the field of architecture and allied arts (posthumous); Rafael “Nonoy” Froilan in dance; Maria Beatriz “Patis” Tesoro in design; Armando “Bing” Lao in film and broadcast arts (posthumous); Gregorio C. Brillantes (posthumous) and Nicanor G. Tiongson in literature; Alfredo S. Buenaventura in music; Teodoro L. Hilado in theater (posthumous); and Nunelucio M. Alvarado in visual arts.

Born in Manila on 16 September 1949, Cajipe-Endaya graduated from the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts in 1970. She began her career as a printmaker, drawing from historical sources such as the Boxer Codex, old prayer books and colonial-era engravings. Her Mga Ninuno (Ancestors) series (1976-1979) examined how Filipinos have been represented through history and raised questions about cultural identity shaped by colonial encounters.

During the political upheavals of the 1970s and 1980s, Cajipe-Endaya expanded into painting and mixed media. Her works responded to militarization, foreign domination, poverty and threats to family and community life. In May Bukas Pa, Inay (There Is Still a Tomorrow, Mother, 1982), she confronted the danger of nuclear destruction while holding on to the possibility of survival and renewal. Daing ng Puso (Heart’s Plaint, 1985) addressed dictatorship and the presence of American military bases.

Her use of household objects gave political meaning to materials traditionally associated with women and domestic life. Sawali, lace, clothing, ironing boards, suitcases and woven textiles became part of a visual language through which she explored migration, labor, displacement and women’s bodily autonomy. In The Wife Is a DH (1995), for example, she examined the experiences of Filipina domestic workers overseas.

Cajipe-Endaya’s contribution extends beyond her individual practice. In 1987, she helped establish KASIBULAN, or Kababaihan sa Sining at Bagong Sibol na Kamalayan, a collective that created spaces for women artists and encouraged artistic engagement with women’s concerns. She also initiated Pananaw: Philippine Journal of Visual Arts and served as its founding editor, contributing to the documentation and critical discussion of Philippine art.

Her works are held in collections in the Philippines and abroad, including those of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, National Gallery Singapore and Fukuoka Asian Art Museum. In 2022, the CCP and the Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings presented her major retrospective, Pagtutol at Pag-asa (Refusal and Hope). Her 2025 New York exhibition, There Is Still a Tomorrow, Mother, introduced audiences to more than five decades of art and advocacy.

Cajipe-Endaya’s recognition as National Artist marks a milestone for Filipino women. It honors an artist who has shown that the home, the female body, and the objects of everyday life can become powerful grounds for remembering history, confronting injustice and imagining a more humane future.