Cover Imelda Cajipe Endaya makes history as the first woman National Artist for Visual Arts (Photo: Abdullah Ali Mapandi / CCP - Visual Arts and Museum Division)
Imelda Cajipe Endaya makes history as the first woman National Artist for Visual Arts (Photo: Abdullah Ali Mapandi / CCP - Visual Arts and Museum Division)
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Pioneering visual artist Imelda Cajipe Endaya has spent over five decades transforming domestic everyday materials and social activism into an internationally acclaimed Filipina visual language
When Imelda Cajipe Endaya began her artistic career in the late 1960s, the Philippines was entering a decade of intense political ferment under the Marcos regime. Confronted with widespread social inequities and the systemic marginalisation of women, she channelled what she described as “the rage inside and the rage all around” into a groundbreaking visual practice that redefined Philippine contemporary art. From delicate 1970s etchings exploring motherhood to monumentally scaled mixed-media assemblages incorporating sawali, abaca, crochet, battered suitcases and ironing boards, her work has consistently placed women at the centre of national history and social transformation.
Above Imelda Cajipe Endaya’s ‘Bigkis na Mapagpalaya’ (Ties That Bind, Ties That Free), 2002 (Photo: CCP - Visual Arts and Museum Division)
Above Imelda Cajipe Endaya’s ‘Mansanas sa Almusal’ (Photo: CCP - Visual Arts and Museum Division)
Imelda Cajipe Endaya’s ‘Bigkis na Mapagpalaya’ (Ties That Bind, Ties That Free), 2002 (Photo: CCP - Visual Arts and Museum Division)
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Born in Manila in 1949, Cajipe Endaya earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts in 1970, followed by graduate studies in Art History and Criticism at UP Diliman. Rather than confining her practice to the solitude of the studio, she immediately integrated artistic research, historical scholarship and community organising into her vocation. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, she worked as a researcher and writer for the National Library, Archipelago Magazine, and the Filipinas Journal of Science and Culture, later contributing as an author, editor and researcher to foundational texts including Filipino Engravings (1980), the CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art (1994) and monographs on pioneering figures such as Manuel A Rodriguez, Sr and Nelfa Querubin.
Read more: Imelda Cajipe Endaya: the artist who helped feminist art be explored further in the Philippines
Above Imelda Cajipe Endaya’s ‘Woman Power/Stop Nuclear Plant’ (1984), tempera on watercolour paper, 76 x 55.5 cm, from the collection of the artist
Imelda Cajipe Endaya’s ‘Woman Power/Stop Nuclear Plant’ (1984), tempera on watercolour paper, 76 x 55.5 cm, from the collection of the artist
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As an artist, Cajipe Endaya forged a singular aesthetic language by elevating indigenous and domestic materials into instruments of social critique. In works like Woman Power/Stop Nuclear Plant (1984), a tempera poster created amidst street protests against the construction of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, she portrayed mothers and children as active civic agents directly confronting state power. Her 1988 masterpiece Bagong Nobena Kay Isidro Labrador, an oil, collage and sawali composition on canvas, brought the tactile textures of rural Philippine homes into direct dialogue with spiritual devotion and peasant struggles.
Above Imelda Cajipe Endaya (right) speaks at Kasibulan’s “Malakas at Maganda” exhibition opening in 2013 at the UP Executive House (Photo: courtesy of Kasibulan)
Imelda Cajipe Endaya (right) speaks at Kasibulan’s “Malakas at Maganda” exhibition opening in 2013 at the UP Executive House (Photo: courtesy of Kasibulan)
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In 1987, amidst the democratic opening following the 1986 EDSA Revolution, Cajipe Endaya co-founded Kababaihan sa Sining at Bagong Sibol na Kamalayan (KASIBULAN) alongside fellow artists Brenda Fajardo, Julie Lluch, Anna Fer and Ida Bugayong. Serving as its founding president, she built Kasibulan into the longest-running women-artist collective in Southeast Asia, creating a supportive sisterhood that nurtured generations of Filipina creators and linked artistic practice directly with grassroots women’s advocacies, reproductive health and human rights. To expand critical discourse across regional boundaries, she also founded Pananaw, the first major artist-initiated book-journal dedicated to Philippine contemporary art criticism.
Read more: Herstory of Kasibulan, a sisterhood of women artists
Above Silverlens exhibits the works of Imelda Cajipe Endaya in January 2026. Seen here is her ‘Filipina DH’ installation (Photo: Silverlens Galleries)
Silverlens exhibits the works of Imelda Cajipe Endaya in January 2026. Seen here is her ‘Filipina DH’ installation (Photo: Silverlens Galleries)
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Her commitment to unearthing hidden histories culminated in landmark installations that resonated far beyond national borders. In 1995, she created Filipina DH, a seminal mixed-media installation comprising battered suitcases, a worn ironing board adorned with the rays of the Mater Dolorosa, and a crumpled Filipiniana blouse inscribed with the word dignidad. First presented at the NCCA Gallery before travelling internationally under the auspices of the Asia Society to New York, Vancouver, Mumbai and Perth, the artwork exposed the harsh realities faced by Filipina migrant domestic workers.
After nearly three decades, Filipina DH made its historic homecoming at Silverlens Manila in January 2026 for her solo exhibition Kahapon Muli Bukas, where original objects donated by migrant workers were displayed alongside recent works addressing religious oppression, climate change and precolonial female leadership.
Above Imelda Cajipe Endaya’s ‘May Bukas Pa Inay’ (Photo: CCP - Visual Arts and Museum Division)
Imelda Cajipe Endaya’s ‘May Bukas Pa Inay’ (Photo: CCP - Visual Arts and Museum Division)
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Recognised across the Asia-Pacific as a major cultural force, her life’s work was celebrated in 2022 through a comprehensive 50-year retrospective at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) titled Imelda Cajipe Endaya: Pagtutol at Pag-asa. Featuring over two hundred artworks and archival materials, the exhibition surveyed her practice across printmaking, painting, collage and installation.
In January 2026, National Gallery Singapore highlighted her regional influence in Fear No Power: Women Imagining Otherwise, a major comparative exhibition featuring five groundbreaking Southeast Asian women artists—Amanda Heng, Dolorosa Sinaga, Imelda Cajipe Endaya herself, Nirmala Dutt and Phaptawan Suwannakudt. Showcasing major works such as her 1974 etching Ritwal, her 1981 painting Buhay ay Vodavil Komiks and her 2004 collage series Conversations on the Spoliarium and Women’s Work, the exhibition underscored how her practice dismantled masculinist art historical hierarchies and restored agency to women’s labour.
Above Art Fair Philippines held a talk in February 2026 titled ‘Engaging the Female Presence: Imelda Cajipe Endaya, Brenda V Fajardo, and Ambie Abaño’ with the aforementioned featured artists and professor Cecilia S De La Paz, presented by Ateneo Art Gallery, which is represented by its director and chief curator Boots Herrera in this photo (Photo: Facebook / Art Fair Philippines)
Art Fair Philippines held a talk in February 2026 titled ‘Engaging the Female Presence: Imelda Cajipe Endaya, Brenda V Fajardo, and Ambie Abaño’ with the aforementioned featured artists and professor Cecilia S De La Paz, presented by Ateneo Art Gallery, which is represented by its director and chief curator Boots Herrera in this photo (Photo: Facebook / Art Fair Philippines)
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Throughout her distinguished career, Cajipe Endaya has received numerous national and international honours, including the CCP Thirteen Artists Award (1990), the Che-ju Pre-Biennale Special Award in South Korea (1995), the Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan Award from the City of Manila (1998), the CCP Centennial Honors for the Arts (1999) and the NCCA Ani ng Dangal (2009).
Her works are housed in prestigious permanent collections worldwide, including the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, the Okinawa Prefectural Museum, the Singapore Art Museum, National Gallery Singapore, the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the National Museum of the Philippines. Recently, she was among the featured artists in the curated Projects section of Art Fair Philippines, alongside Kasibulan co-founder Brenda Fajardo.
Above Imelda Cajipe Endaya’s ‘Juan Luna and Pacita Abad’, 2004, oil, acrylic and collage on paper, 64 x 45.7 cm, from the collection of National Gallery Singapore (Photo: courtesy of the artist)
Above Imelda Cajipe Endaya’s ‘Juan’s Spoliarium and Agnes’s Carcass Cornucopia’, 2004, oil, acrylic and collage on paper, 64 x 45.7 cm (Photo: courtesy of the artist)
Imelda Cajipe Endaya’s ‘Juan Luna and Pacita Abad’, 2004, oil, acrylic and collage on paper, 64 x 45.7 cm, from the collection of National Gallery Singapore (Photo: courtesy of the artist)
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“I can never, in my conscience, ignore and pretend that everything is serene in my surrounding environment,” she has reflected on her lifelong vocation. “I wanted my work to make a statement on public issues, and write clearly so that the themes of my work come from real-life issues. My activism and political reflection, my rage and my love, my resistance, were rooted in the defence of human dignity, a distinctively Filipina sense of national identity, and the community along with the self.”
Through an unwavering commitment to historical truth, spiritual devotion, and solidarity among women from all walks of life, Imelda Cajipe Endaya remains an indispensable figure in Philippine culture, proving that art made with courage and conscience possesses the power to transform society.
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Franz writes about the local cultural scene and rediscovering the country’s storied past and rich heritage. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Santo Tomas and is currently pursuing a master's degree in Art Studies at the University of the Philippines Diliman. Besides working on this luxury lifestyle magazine, Franz is an avid book reader, local traveller, museum-goer, chorister, and community theatre playwright. But above all this, this Aether main spends more time in Teyvat than anywhere else.
