BIOGRAPHY

 

 

Lenore Raquel Santos Lim is a pioneering Filipino Canadian printmaker, educator, and philanthropist whose six-decade career bridges traditional fine art and contemporary technology. A 1967 graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts, she combines etching, lithography, and serigraphy with digital manipulation and computer-aided design. Her work draws deeply on Filipino cultural memory, with motifs such as calado embroidery, leaves, and handmade lace used to explore identity, womanhood, and environmental conservation.

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Lim continues to publish, mentor, and exhibit internationally, sustaining her role as a vital cultural ambassador for Filipino art and heritage. Her practice also extends to human rights advocacy. This is seen most notably in her internationally acclaimed Comfort Women series and her installation Comfort House, which together serve as a global memorial to wartime trauma and women's resilience.

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After moving to North America in the 1970s, Lim dedicated herself to building cultural communities across the diaspora. She taught for two decades at the United Nations International School in New York while regularly returning to the Philippines to lead free workshops. In Canada, she founded the Filipino Music and Art Foundation BC in 1980 and launched Pagtitipon, a landmark biennial exhibition of Filipino Canadian art in Vancouver. She has also served as President of the Society of Philippine American Artists.

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Her honours include the University of the Philippines Alumni Association Lifetime Distinguished Achievement Award (2026), the Pamana ng Pilipino Presidential Award (2004), and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (1999). Highlights of her exhibition history include Leaves, Lace, and Legacy, a year-long retrospective at the National Museum of Fine Arts (Manila, Philippines, 2024–2025). Recent exhibitions include Tapestry of Nature: Filipino Echoes at the Embassy of the Philippine (Calgary, Canada, 2026) and Interwoven Horizons at the Embassy of the Philippines (Seoul, South Korea, 2024). Her work has been exhibited across Europe (Germany, Italy, Austria, France), the Middle East (Jordan, UAE), North America (Canada, the United States), and Asia (the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea).

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Her works are held in the collections of the National Museum of the Philippines, the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, the GSIS Museum of Art, the National Library of the Philippines, and the New York Public Library. They are also in private collections worldwide, including that of Agnes Gund, President Emerita of the Museum of Modern Art.