Animal Nitrate: The Art of Ronald Ventura. (2024)

MANILA, Philippines Ronald Ventura is in a secret lair, fieldingquestions from the Japanese. Let's qualify that for a bit: Venturahas just taken an art professor, a documentarist and a gallery ownerfrom Tokyo (along with their interpreter) on a tour of his latestone-man show titled "Bobro's World" at Secret Fresh inRonac Art Center.

They have now installed themselves in a bar surrounded by toys,collectibles and a portrait of Johnroy Alferez ndash wearing a whitehoodie, flanked by Mr. Lion and Mr.

Wolf. (If that sounded like a Tim Burton sketch, well, yeshellip ina way).

Over coffee, the visitors are trying to make sense of the mysterythat is Ronald Ventura. The art professor talks about the multi-layeredartworks: an amalgam of hyperrealism, cartoons, comics, anime, text, PopArt tropes, esoteric symbols, omnipresent emoticons and dogs (lots of"heckin' doggos").

One painting alone contains a multitude of styles and subjects (acosplayer, for example, is superimposed with an image straight fromsci-fi), an artistic strategy that Ventura has pursued in the past fewyears. He credits this to being bombarded by images every day, fromtelevision to the internet.

"Is there a Catholicism dimension to this painting?" asksProfessor Kunio, zoning in on a work titled "Hotdog Society."Ronald answers that Catholicism is ingrained in our culture, ourlifestyle.

Artist Ronald Ventura poses with guests in front of Bobro'sInstallation. On the cover: The artist with Hot Dog Society.

Although "Hotdog Society" features Pluto, Mickey and stabsof Disney humor, there is an underlying menace in the artwork, an ironicdread. The pack of dogs in the painting can be considered a metaphor forthe biblical flock of sheep, maybe even the Nietzschean concept of theHerd.

The arrows can be seen as road sign staples, Ventura shares, butthey can also be linked to San Sebastian who, lore has it, was tied to atree and riddled with arrows. "The images here can be seen assomething sacrificial.

" Ventura has sacrificed a lot to the altar of Art. Most peopleknow him as an auction star whose "Grayground" painting wassold for a record-setting P46.9 million at Sotheby's.

He continues to set gavels on fire in auction houses mount sold-outshows in Milan (Primo Marella), New York (Tyler Rollins Fine Art) andTokyo (Whitestone Ginza), among other cities and headline museumexhibitions. He is set to take part in an upcoming show at Piazza SanMarco, Venice ndash coinciding with the biennale ndash presented byKaruizawa New Art Museum.

But the road to success has been riddled with slings, arrows and ahost of non-believers. Ventura's origin story is quite aneye-opener.

Ronald is the son of a waiter father (who worked kitchens in Riyadh,Saudi Arabia) and a teacher mother (Tonsuya Elementary School). TheVenturas lived in a cramped apartment in Malabon.

There were perennial floods and money problems. But the boy showedflashes of brilliance early on.

"In our old house, one of the doors has a drawing of VoltesV," recalls Ronald, "and the letters A' to J.' Atage five, I didn't know the rest of the letters, but I couldalready draw Japanese robots.

" He would also enter empty classrooms and fill the blackboardswith chalk drawings. In high school, he seemingly was a fully formedportraitist.

You would see bulletin boards adorned with portraits of MichaelJackson and Billy Idol executed in pencil by Ventura. His fine artsthesis at the University of Santo Tomas was talked about on campus ndasheven by students who were not able to see it.

It was like Godot, man, but more apocalyptic. There was a buzz, allright.

But seldom written about Ventura (aside from the man spending ninechallenging years as a full-time art teacher) were the doomed alliancewith a Mephistophelean gallery owner, the falling-out, the fights andvarious rifts with various figures in the art industry. Lots of vulturesin the barrio.

Even now, a couple of artists are waiting with bated breath forRonald to chart disappointing figures at Sotheby's orChristie's ndash like a murder of jealous crows. One influential,velvet buzz-saw of an art critic was not really a believer inRonald's work, well, until the artist bagged the grand prize in theprestigious Ateneo Art Awards in 2005. Well, isn't that rich? Thatwas a turning point in Ventura's career.

He was awarded a studio residency grant to Sydney, Australia,allowing him to visit museums and galleries, to see artworks he used tosee only in books. Singapore followed soon after.

And then the rest of the world took notice. No looking back afterthat.

Literally, says Ronald, for he became too focused in his artisticpractice, in his own tortured, carnivalesque world. Ronald motions to apainting titled "Color Blinds" in his Secret Fresh showdepicting a man in black and white getting "erased" by ageometry of colors.

"I started this piece two years ago. This is where I begandefining color differently, not just for symbolism.

" Treating color almost like another character altogether. Whendid you realize you wanted to pursue a career in the arts, someoneasks.

"Being an artist is an existential state," Venturaexplains. "It is not a profession.

And every day, you become a receptacle of images. You walk in thecity and you see someone talking on the cell phone.

You see a dog, you cross the street, you see another thing, you hearsomething elsehellip The process of image-making is continuous." Headds how this observation has become enfleshed in his artworkscharacterized by a riot of imagery.

Ventura calls it "imagination in animation.""Blinders" depicts a boy superimposed with a carousel.

Maybe it is related to Ventura's recollection of fun times atFiesta Carnival in Cubao as a boy. How this motley-colored memoryboxed-out the less colorful incidents in his childhood.

He elaborates, "We live in a world where images flow likestreams of consciousness. The disruption is not seamless, there are nosubtle transitions ndash the stacking of images is jagged andabrupt.

But even if each work shows an overlapping of diverse images, thereis a certain cohesion or visual solidarity. Maybe it is somethingsymbolic of the times we live in, but ndash speaking as an artist livingin chaotic yet always cheerful Manila ndash one cannot help but beinspired by everyone and the every day.

" It is quite charming to see Ventura explain to his Japaneseguests how a Filipino delicacy inspired his complex, multi-layered,ultra-expensive paintings. "Think of them like thesapin-sapin," he concludes.

"It is a multi-layered, rainbow-colored snack or dessert withpurple yam, jackfruit and coconut flakes. Very sweet, great withcoffee.

" The expressions on the faces of the listeners from the Landof the Rising Sun say it all: Must. Try.

Sapin-sapin. Before the night is over, Ronald would meet up withfriends (DJ Bigboy Cheng and curator Ruel Caasi) and talk to them aboutwhat grown men hold dear: family, cars, shoes, dogs, etc.

When Ventura goes home, the blank canvases will be shroud-white,stretched and primed. Figures ready to curl into light, worlds waitingto be born.

And Ronald Ventura must dream them all up again. RonaldVentura's "Bobros' World" runs until Mar.

23 at the SixInch Gallery, Secret Fresh, Ronac Art Center, OrtigasAve., San Juan.

For information, call 570-9815 loc. 7 or emailsecretfreshinfo@gmail.

com.