Norma Belleza (b. 1939, San Fernando, Pampanga, Philippines) is a Filipino painter renowned for her folk‑genre works and vibrant depictions of everyday life. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Santo Tomas, and soon after held her first solo exhibition at the Philippine Art Gallery (PAG). Her early talent was recognized when her painting Dead Christ won Second Prize at the Shell National Students Art Competition in 1961.
Belleza has consistently portrayed women as full‑bodied figures, unmindful of their daily burdens yet radiating strength and dignity. Her canvases reflect the joy of daily survival, capturing scenes of vendors, mothers, children, and ordinary workers in bright, decorative compositions.
Her achievements include receiving the Araw ng Maynila Award for Painting, and representing the Philippines in the First ASEAN Symposium of Aesthetics Workshop and Exhibition, affirming her stature as one of the country’s foremost contemporary artists. Belleza’s work and philosophy are also documented in Self‑Portraits: Twelve Filipino Artists Speak (Ateneo Press, 1999) by Thelma Kintanar and Sylvia Mendez Ventura.
In her artistic evolution, Belleza’s neo‑realist style became distinct in the 1970s: she defined shapes with linear clarity, softened adjacent areas into washed‑out tones, and later shifted toward more intense, opaque colors in her recent canvases.
Belleza is part of a celebrated family of artists—her husband Angelito Antonio and children Emil, Fatima, and Marcel Antonio are all accomplished painters—making the Belleza‑Antonio family a cornerstone of Philippine contemporary art.
