Imelda Cajipe Endaya (b. 1949, Manila, Philippines; lives and works in Manila, Philippines) is a National Artist of the Philippines for Visual Arts and the first woman to receive the distinction in the field.

The Order of National Artists, the country’s highest national recognition for Filipinos who have made distinct and significant contributions to Philippine arts and letters, honors Endaya’s more than five decades of pioneering work in feminist and socially engaged art. The distinction was conferred through Proclamation No. 1414, signed on September 1, 2026, upon the recommendation of the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

Endaya’s distinctions also include the Ani ng Dangal Award from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (2009), CCP Centennial Honors (1999), Araw ng Maynila Award (1998), and the CCP Thirteen Artists Award (1991), marking a sustained record of recognition throughout her career.

Since the 1970s, Endaya has developed a wide-ranging practice spanning mixed-media painting, printmaking, and installation. Grounded in the realities of Filipino life, her work addresses cultural identity, human rights, migration, family, reproductive health, globalization, children’s rights, the environment, and peace, with women’s lives and experiences at its center. Crochet, lace, textiles, windows, flatirons, suitcases, papier-mâché craft, and found objects from the home and popular culture recur throughout her richly layered works, forming a visual language that is distinctly Filipino and womanly.

Endaya is also a writer, curator, art projects organizer, and educator in the non-formal setting. She co-founded KASIBULAN, a collective of women artists, and Pananaw: Philippine Journal of Visual Arts, an important initiative in contemporary art discourse. She was affiliated with the Philippine Association of Printmakers from 1970 to 1976 and served on the National Commission for Culture and the Arts Committee on Visual Arts from 1995 to 2001. She continues to conduct lectures and art workshops.

Her work is held in the collections of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Philippine National Art Gallery, National Gallery of Singapore, Metropolitan Museum Manila, Okinawa Prefectural Museum, and Fukuoka Asian Art Museum. Her landmark 2022 retrospective at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Pagtutol at Pag-asa (Refusal and Hope), affirmed her enduring contribution to Philippine art. In 2026, her work was presented internationally at S.E.A. Focus in Singapore and Art Basel Hong Kong.