Plet Bolipata

(b. 1962)

Plet Bolipata is a visual artist. She graduated from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States, with a degree in Computer Information Systems, in 1984. She started her career as a self-taught artist and later, took some drawing and painting classes at the Art Students League in New York. She was granted the Freeman Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center in the USA in 2006 and was a recipient of the Natividad-Galang Fajardo Award from the Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings in 2012. She is currently based in Manila but her studio is in the province of Zambales.

Bolipata shares that she has tried her hand at many things—-explored different mediums and techniques that included painting in oil, watercolor, sculpture, filmmaking and mosaic. She reveals that the pandemic has brought an incredible change in her work. Isolation the past two years has helped her get re-acquainted with her fondness for painting in oil. This period fraught with uncertainty has allowed her to become more daring and experimental with her style, trying her hand working with metal sheets and gold leafing. She also took to painting in watercolor and was able to overcome her fear of the medium. Isolation proved to be fruitful.