Lek Vercauteren Borja emigrated from the Philippines to the U.S. with her family at age 10. Since then, Borja has moved through the world many times feeling displaced. In some ways, she uses art to return to those moments of displacement in order to understand them and how they shape her as a person.

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Borja's current body of work explores the depth to which Spanish colonization and American cultural imperialism has penetrated her as an individual. She mines historical events and unravel official accounts, to draw out their effects and aftermaths in her personal history and development as a person. Borja's works critique and celebrate the individual, family and country; and embody a larger history of immigration, trauma, survival, and resilience.