Marlon E. Fuentes

Marlon E. Fuentes came of age in the Philippines during the presidency and later dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos (1965-86), studying Anthropology and Behavioral Science at the De La Salle University, Manila. In 1975, Fuentes immigrated to the U.S. and pursued an MBA degree at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He developed an interest in photography while he was in school and eventually left his job at a private firm. Upon his formal training with Mark Power at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC (1981-83), Fuentes developed the series Circle of Fear (1981-91) and Face Fusion (1986-89), surrealist photo-based works that manipulated and spliced together images of Filipino visual culture, Roman Catholic iconography, and abstract bodily forms. He subsequently received a fellowship in 1991 from Temple University, prompted by a shift in interest towards video and filmmaking. Fuentes produced Bontoc Eulogy in 1995, a pseudo- and auto-ethnographic documentary that weaves together ethnographic photographs and archival, contemporary, and fictional footage. His work has since been spotlighted in various contexts of Asian American, Filipinx, and media studies, among others. In recent years, Fuentes has turned his camera to landscape photography.

Authored by Anna Lee, curatorial assistant for Asian American art, 2025.