Arnold Bornios

Arnold Bornios is a Filipino-American visual artist born in Honolulu Hawaii to immigrant parents from Abra, Ilocos Norte. He graduated with a BFA in painting from the University of Hawaii in 1998 and is currently an MFA candidate in the College of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines Diliman. The artist has been active in exhibiting at Honolulu since 1998, including the annual Honolulu Museum’s Honolulu Printmakers, Honolulu Japanese Chamber of Commerce Annual Exhibit in 2000 and ANGST Group Exhibit, Hawaii Pacific University in 2002.
Bornios is a repeat exhibitor in the prestigious Artists of Hawaii Biennale, being selected by a jury in 2005, 2009 and 2011. His solo show, A Collection of Paintings was held in 2010 at the South Street Gallery in Honolulu. He has participated twice in the juried Filipino Pamana cultural exhibit held annually at Honolulu City Hall. Bornios was the recipient of the coveted Reuben Tam Award for Painting at the Artists of Hawaii Biennale in 2005 and received the Best of Show Award in 2013 at the annual Pamana Filipino cultural exhibit. The artist exhibited his first collection of paintings in the Philippines at Elements Asian Art Gallery in Taguig in 2014. He is currently an active member of the Marikina Art Wednesday Group.
Bornios’ paintings exhibit energetic brushwork, decisive lines, and an edgy tactile rawness. Present is a Post- Modern aesthetic of recombining and juxtaposing disparate elements in order to recreate meaning and metaphor. In his search for expressing themes of Filipino-American identity, he works by finding common and disconnected samples of imagery that highlight the unique relationship between both cultures. His subject matter deals with an emphasis on cultural immersion and the “Fil-Am” experience in context to his current residency in the Philippines. The artist in his unique position as both observer and participant seeks to retrace the roots of his ancestral heritage and discover the overlap and divisions in ideology between American and Filipino cultures.