It was a day that Elmer Borlongan anticipated with excitement - the opening of his first solo exhibition in Australia last Oct. 2. “I was young and at the beginning of my artistic journey when I arrived in Sydney thirty long years ago,” Borlongan says. “It’s been a long road to return, and the opportunity presented itself in the offer of a solo show in Ames Yavuz Sydney.”

Titled Tabi-Tabi Po, the show at Ames Yavuz Sydney featured 11 of the celebrated Filipino painter’s works, thoughtfully spaced within the gallery’s pristine white expanse, allowing each piece to breathe and resonate on its own. “The exhibit received a lot of attention and good reviews from Australian artists and curators,” Borlongan exclaims, before adding that, ”the Filipino community in Sydney was very supportive in their warm welcome and appreciation.”

Guests included representatives from the Philippine diplomatic corps, Australia’s acclaimed artists, and established collectors, some of whom flew in from Manila for the occasion. It was a proud moment, especially for Borlongan’s kababayans. “I overheard someone say ‘Nakaka-proud maging Pinoy,’” recalled top landscape designer and collector Bobby Gopiao. “And I share that sentiment, standing there in a prestigious gallery on foreign soil, surrounded by Emong’s moving works.”

For the exhibition, Borlongan turned to the rhythms of his adoptive home in Zambales, weaving those experiences with childhood memories and local mythologies into a deeply personal series. He painted contemplative images - the solo traveler gazing at Zambales’ mountains, children embracing by the shore, a couple enthralled by a sparkly constellation.

Brought closer to nature in recent years, he paid homage to the spirits that inhabit forests in ‘Guardian of the Trees.’ In ‘Brahminy Kite,’ a man submerged in water contemplates his fate as a coastal predator found in both Australia and the Philippines hovers above.

Borlongan’s urban sensibilities remain present, being a city boy at heart. In a painting titled ‘Shelter From the Storm,’ the artist depicts his subject curled inside a concrete culvert, a jagged sliver of lightning in the background hinting at an approaching storm.

Taken together, the works reveal the depth of Borlongan’s vision—a portrait of the Filipino spirit rendered in a language uniquely his own. “My recent works serve as a testament to a dedication to figurative and narrative art in expressing a nation’s soul.”