The life and loves of Norma Liongoren

To celebrate Women’s Month (this month of March) and World Earth Day in April, Liongoren Gallery in Cubao, Q.C., opened Thursday last week 2010 Walong Pilipina: Alagad ng Kalikasan, an exhibit featuring eight environmentalists. These were Evelyn Cacha, founder of Alyansa Laban sa Mina (ALAMIN) in Mindoro; UP Tacloban Dean Margarita dela Cruz; Sis. Luz Emmanuel of Assumption Antipolo; environmental lawyer Ipat Luna; Judea Millora, a management expert; Jurgenne Primavera, renowned advocate of sustainable fish farming; Lydia Robledo, butterfly habitat conservation advocate, and Luz Sabas, 80 years old, who together with her late husband pioneered waste management in the Philippines.

The advocacies of these eight women were portrayed by noted visual artists Egai Talusan Fernandez, Efren Garcellano, Renato Habulan, Rico Palacio, Mario de Rivera, Mark Salvatus, Jojit Solano and PG Zoluaga, who worked on the subjects based on research supplied by UP Arts Studies class under Prof. Flaudette May Datuin.

These year’s honorees will conduct workshops and fora on environment protection during the run of the exhibition, from March 25 to April 15 at the Liongoren Gallery on 111 New York/Stanford Sts., Cubao, and April 17-May 1 at the Liongoren Gallery on 301 Tapuac Dist., Dagupan City.

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Norma Liongoren has been putting up Walong Filipina exhibits every March since 1990, with each show tackling relevant issues. Norma told me this year’s theme is the environment, with the UP Delta Lambda Sigma Sorority Alumnae Association serving as exhibit sponsor.

Norma is well-known in the Philippine visual arts landscape for her encouragement of artists by providing a venue for their work at her galleries and bringing these around the country. Recognizing her contribution to the art scene, the Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings (ALIWW) selected her for the 8th Natividad Galang Fajardo Lecture and Exhibit.

Dr. Ana Maria Theresa P. Labrador, associate professor of anthropology, Ateneo de Manila University’s introductory essay on Norma at the lecture, gives us an insight into the life and times of Norma, saying that Norma’s choice of the number 8 is much like “the many activities with which she engages — they seem to continue to bear fruit sometimes even beyond her original intentions, even beyond the visual arts.”

Norma’s reputation, said Ana Maria, as nurturer of artists — young and old — is legendary. “She is known to have been a discoverer of talents, although she would tell you immediately that those talents discovered her so that she could enable them in the rather bewildering and often fractious Philippine Art World.”           

Norma’s pioneering spirit is matched by her painter husband Fred Liongoren’s bold and defiant streak to embark on untested ground. Ana Maria said Norma is Fred’s “number one fan and supporter — who at the time he began creating abstract, minimalist black and white paintings in the 1960s no one quite understood. Both of them stood brave and defiant – he as artist and seer and she as nurturer and witness – until eventually many joined Norma in seeing the exceptional and elegant paintings of Mang Fred.”

Beyond Norma’s achievement in the visual arts is her passionate espousal of non-art activities. Her projects abound and are wide ranging. Among them is the informal settlement in Cubao, along Ermin Garcia Street, that became part of the project of International Teams Philippines. She assisted in efforts to encourage the settlers to return to their homes in the provinces. She also conducts Bible and prayer meetings in her galleries and friends’ homes. She takes care of abandoned children. Ana Marie puts it this way: “The bedrock of her passion comes from her faith as a Christian.”

Norma was born on Sept. 22, 1946, in Lingayen, Pangasinan, and grew up in Dagupan City. She trained as a nurse, worked in Manila and then Davao. Back in Manila, she became research assistant at the then Population Center Foundation in Taguig Foundation which Norma saw was collecting Philippine art. She decided to embark on a career in private art dealing and in March 1981, she put up a gallery in Cubao, and began organizing exhibitions of works by National Artists, the late Victorio Edades, Francisco Sionil Jose and Salvador Bernal. Her Cubao gallery is an established art center in the country, and a watering hole for artists.

In 2007, she was appointed Dagupan City Heritage Commissioner. This task takes her to Pangasinan often, and helps her provincemates to be conscious and proud of their heritage. She herself dresses up in ethnic costumes, and promotes interest in the use of Philippine fabrics.

Norma and Fred’s three children are engaged in artistic endeavors. The eldest, Crikerik, who is married to Lisa Takayama, is a photographer; their second son, Avid, is an independent filmmaker, and daughter Hannah, is a visual artist who is now working in Vietnam.

Ana Maria wrote: “Having nurtured and raised a family amid all these activities, (Norma) has drawn feats of inspiration and a model for Filipinas and Southeast Asian women. In other words, Norma has redefined the term multi-tasking and even raised the bar.”

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Tucked away in a relatively quiet area along Reposo street, a stone’s throw away from the St. Andrew’s Church in Makati is the LRI Plaza, a one-stop lifestyle center with over 40 stores. One finds vintage artworks by Filipino masters in five art galleries, learn to dance at Studio at 116, have a portrait taken by noted photographer Mandy Navasero, have iced mocha frapuccino at the Room Upstairs, and a refreshing body scrub indulgence at Foot Options and at Rain. One meets name-droppable architects, art aficionados and painting collectors, stressed-out corporate execs, at LRI.

I found myself inside Rain, a boutique selling handcrafted jewelry pieces, bangles and beads, big, bold, brassy bags. Boutique owner Tim Tam Ong takes pride in her jewelry designs having merited the attention of serious collectors, expat wives and very visible ladies of leisure.

 What capped my shopping spree at Rain was heavenly body massage – inside the boutique!

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