Ronald Ventura

Ronald Ventura (b. 1973, Philippines) lives and works in Manila, Philippines. His paintings and sculptures are well-known for their unique combination of figurative motifs, making them among Southeast Asia’s most recognisable images of contemporary art.

Ventura’s work features a complex layering of images and styles, ranging from hyperrealism, cartoons and graffiti. He views this layering process as a metaphor for the multifaceted national identity of the Philippines. Over the centuries, the country has been influenced by various occupying powers such as Spain, Japan, and the United States, alongside its underlying indigenous culture, resulting in a complex and sometimes uneasy sense of identity. Ventura explores this phenomenon through a visual dialogue of images, seamlessly blending Eastern and Western aesthetics, high and low art, as well as references to Old Master paintings and Japanese and American cartoons. In addition, he draws attention to the ‘second skin’ of cultural signifiers that each individual carries, often subconsciously. For Ventura, skin serves as an expressive surface, adorned with tattoos, concealed under layers of imagery, or exploding outward to reveal an inner world of fantasy and conflict.