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Lot Essay
EYELAND DIVIDE: AN EPIC JOURNEY
The distinctive paintings of Ronald Ventura weave a spellbinding confection of mythology, philosophy and a journey of the imaginary. Each creation by Ventura is never an individual story in itself but rather an enchanted synthesis of disparate elements, all the while overlaid with the artist's perfect photorealist technique melded with pop iconography. Perceived as a fascinating yet enigmatic figure in contemporary Asian art, Ronald Ventura's insight often wanders where others fear to tread, plumbing the unforeseen depths of the human psyche and conveying these liminal mirages to viewers.
Eyeland Divide is possibly one of the most complex, ambitious and visually stunning paintings to take form under Ventura's brush - a rich, epic panorama; a textured frieze reminiscent of Renaissance wall murals. It uses a rare two-panel diptych format, where the images on both panels simultaneously juxtapose and unify with each other. At the heart of Eyeland Divide is the face of a young girl, a muse-like figure with gold-colored eyes and a far-seeing gaze. Elaborate filigrees and darkly inked curlicues cover most of her exposed skin, reflecting Ventura's penchant for masking the personas of his protagonists. He permits viewers only a mysterious glimpse at the girl's underlying identity, caught up as she is within the dreams and machinations of her own inner mind. When seen within the context of the entire artwork - which appears to be a hallucinatory landscape drawn from past, present and future episodes in human history - she reminds us of Pythia, the Delphic Oracle: a virginal seer who prophesized apocalyptic visions. Ventura's model is indisputably beautiful but more significantly, has been imbued with a breathtakingly iconic quality by the artist; reminiscent of the eternal images of Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Elizabeth Taylor and their ilk.
Eyeland Divide also continues from preceding works by Ventura, such as Zookeeper (Christie's May 2012), Apocalyptic Channel (Christie's May 2011) and Crossed Trip (Christie's November 2012) which all portray the recurring theme of individuals encountering parallel metaphysical universes through the powers of their imagination.
ISLANDS OF MYTHOLOGY AND ENLIGHTENMENT
"Eyeland" is a pun on the word 'Island', conjuring the vista of an island of eyes - an all-seeing, all-knowing island floating in solitary state. Ventura is particularly fascinated with the concept of islands: individual land forms where their inhabitants flourish, mingle and perhaps even war against each other, but are nonetheless irrevocably tied to one another by the limitations of their geographical boundaries. Islands have frequently recurred within Ventura's works over recent years, reflecting the saying: "No man is an island". Ventura explores the notions of how cultural tropes and historical periods are aggregated; that tribes and ethnographical factions can appear divided on the surface yet are intrinsically very much part of each other, and would lose their defining roles and identities should they be separated. Ventura's native country, the Philippines, is in fact a tropical cluster of islands in the Pacific Ocean, each with their own unique sociological characteristics, myths, cultures and behaviors. The phrase "Divide" is used paradoxically - in truth, Ventura's cultural continents are not isolated, and it is how they bridge these divides and cohere to one another which is vital. This philosophy is also the founding inspiration behind Ventura's artform and aesthetic, as the artist successfully binds different elements together into a unified and spectacular visual whole.
Within Eyeland Divide, Ventura was particularly inspired by historical icons and cultural movements, particularly the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Age of Enlightenment - also called the Age of Reason - was a historical chapter where science and rationalist thought arose in reaction to the romantic and melodramatic sensibilities of the earlier Baroque and Rococo periods. Juxtaposing visual metaphors in Eyeland Divide reflect this difficult progression - for example the tussling Raphaelite cherubim in contrast to a wax anatomy model, known as a 'Medical Venus' which was used by Enlightenment-era Italian doctors to learn internal medicine. Dominating the right panel is the majestic winged horse Pegasus, a magnificent but untamable flying steed who first appears in Greco-Roman mythology to symbolically represent flashes of divine inspiration. Later on the winged Pegasus became a favorite subject of Renaissance and Baroque masters such as Rubens and Tiepolo. Pegasus is also overlaid with another horse of sterner, military appearance, a possible reference to the Trojan horse. Both horses are beautifully and realistically wrought, with every graft and sinew of their musculature depicted within the painting.
Ventura's considerable skill in photorealism is always a highlight of his visual compositions. One of the most captivating images in Eyeland Divide is the lion-headed boy wearing a scarlet bow-tie. The entire figure is rendered in Ventura's exceptional technique, the head of the lion evoking the Metro-Goldwyn Mayer film mascot; while the boy could be a portrayal of the artist's young son or even an avatar of his own childhood. However there is a spreading spiderweb fracture over the boy's arm, like the cracking of glass or mirror, as though the boy's reality is starting to fissure and splinter apart. At the lower left of the painting, Ventura includes a faceless soldier carrying a wrapped bundle, suggesting a military exercise within an apocalyptic dystopia. In this scenario, he could be rescuing a swaddled infant from the battlefield or enacting a bomb disposal at the risk of his own life and limb.
Ventura introduces another interesting archetype in the motif of the bee, an insect which entranced ancient cultures but received little scientific study until the Age of Enlightenment. To the ancient Egyptians, the bee was a sacred insect that bridged the natural world and underworld. Within the Homeric Hymns, a bee maiden delivered the gift of prophecy to Apollo while Greek and Sanskrit sages believed the bee could confer eloquence. For this reason the Delphic Oracle was also referred to as the Delphic Bee, and the infant Zeus was reportedly raised on wild honey delivered directly into his mouth by bees. However it was not until the 18th century that European philosophers first used a microscope to understand the biology of honey bees and constructed a glass walled observation hive. It appears appropriate that Ventura's bee, depicted with minute precision made possible by scientific observation, is perched nearly at the lips of his muse, as though also conferring her with the oracular gifts of eloquence and prophecy in order to narrate the fabulous landscape taking form around her.
Drawing the entire creation together is Ventura's characteristic use of pop iconography, from the colorful bridle of balloons on Pegasus to the Walt Disney toons bursting from the Medical Venus; the scintillating rainbow beam surging from the girl's eye, and finally - the cherry on the cake - a little horror-flick Hello Kitty perched on the girl's finger like a diamond ring. Ventura's brilliant grasp of compelling motifs and his mastery in assembling them into a visual feast of moveable parts is unsurpassed within contemporary culture today.
The distinctive paintings of Ronald Ventura weave a spellbinding confection of mythology, philosophy and a journey of the imaginary. Each creation by Ventura is never an individual story in itself but rather an enchanted synthesis of disparate elements, all the while overlaid with the artist's perfect photorealist technique melded with pop iconography. Perceived as a fascinating yet enigmatic figure in contemporary Asian art, Ronald Ventura's insight often wanders where others fear to tread, plumbing the unforeseen depths of the human psyche and conveying these liminal mirages to viewers.
Eyeland Divide is possibly one of the most complex, ambitious and visually stunning paintings to take form under Ventura's brush - a rich, epic panorama; a textured frieze reminiscent of Renaissance wall murals. It uses a rare two-panel diptych format, where the images on both panels simultaneously juxtapose and unify with each other. At the heart of Eyeland Divide is the face of a young girl, a muse-like figure with gold-colored eyes and a far-seeing gaze. Elaborate filigrees and darkly inked curlicues cover most of her exposed skin, reflecting Ventura's penchant for masking the personas of his protagonists. He permits viewers only a mysterious glimpse at the girl's underlying identity, caught up as she is within the dreams and machinations of her own inner mind. When seen within the context of the entire artwork - which appears to be a hallucinatory landscape drawn from past, present and future episodes in human history - she reminds us of Pythia, the Delphic Oracle: a virginal seer who prophesized apocalyptic visions. Ventura's model is indisputably beautiful but more significantly, has been imbued with a breathtakingly iconic quality by the artist; reminiscent of the eternal images of Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Elizabeth Taylor and their ilk.
Eyeland Divide also continues from preceding works by Ventura, such as Zookeeper (Christie's May 2012), Apocalyptic Channel (Christie's May 2011) and Crossed Trip (Christie's November 2012) which all portray the recurring theme of individuals encountering parallel metaphysical universes through the powers of their imagination.
ISLANDS OF MYTHOLOGY AND ENLIGHTENMENT
"Eyeland" is a pun on the word 'Island', conjuring the vista of an island of eyes - an all-seeing, all-knowing island floating in solitary state. Ventura is particularly fascinated with the concept of islands: individual land forms where their inhabitants flourish, mingle and perhaps even war against each other, but are nonetheless irrevocably tied to one another by the limitations of their geographical boundaries. Islands have frequently recurred within Ventura's works over recent years, reflecting the saying: "No man is an island". Ventura explores the notions of how cultural tropes and historical periods are aggregated; that tribes and ethnographical factions can appear divided on the surface yet are intrinsically very much part of each other, and would lose their defining roles and identities should they be separated. Ventura's native country, the Philippines, is in fact a tropical cluster of islands in the Pacific Ocean, each with their own unique sociological characteristics, myths, cultures and behaviors. The phrase "Divide" is used paradoxically - in truth, Ventura's cultural continents are not isolated, and it is how they bridge these divides and cohere to one another which is vital. This philosophy is also the founding inspiration behind Ventura's artform and aesthetic, as the artist successfully binds different elements together into a unified and spectacular visual whole.
Within Eyeland Divide, Ventura was particularly inspired by historical icons and cultural movements, particularly the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Age of Enlightenment - also called the Age of Reason - was a historical chapter where science and rationalist thought arose in reaction to the romantic and melodramatic sensibilities of the earlier Baroque and Rococo periods. Juxtaposing visual metaphors in Eyeland Divide reflect this difficult progression - for example the tussling Raphaelite cherubim in contrast to a wax anatomy model, known as a 'Medical Venus' which was used by Enlightenment-era Italian doctors to learn internal medicine. Dominating the right panel is the majestic winged horse Pegasus, a magnificent but untamable flying steed who first appears in Greco-Roman mythology to symbolically represent flashes of divine inspiration. Later on the winged Pegasus became a favorite subject of Renaissance and Baroque masters such as Rubens and Tiepolo. Pegasus is also overlaid with another horse of sterner, military appearance, a possible reference to the Trojan horse. Both horses are beautifully and realistically wrought, with every graft and sinew of their musculature depicted within the painting.
Ventura's considerable skill in photorealism is always a highlight of his visual compositions. One of the most captivating images in Eyeland Divide is the lion-headed boy wearing a scarlet bow-tie. The entire figure is rendered in Ventura's exceptional technique, the head of the lion evoking the Metro-Goldwyn Mayer film mascot; while the boy could be a portrayal of the artist's young son or even an avatar of his own childhood. However there is a spreading spiderweb fracture over the boy's arm, like the cracking of glass or mirror, as though the boy's reality is starting to fissure and splinter apart. At the lower left of the painting, Ventura includes a faceless soldier carrying a wrapped bundle, suggesting a military exercise within an apocalyptic dystopia. In this scenario, he could be rescuing a swaddled infant from the battlefield or enacting a bomb disposal at the risk of his own life and limb.
Ventura introduces another interesting archetype in the motif of the bee, an insect which entranced ancient cultures but received little scientific study until the Age of Enlightenment. To the ancient Egyptians, the bee was a sacred insect that bridged the natural world and underworld. Within the Homeric Hymns, a bee maiden delivered the gift of prophecy to Apollo while Greek and Sanskrit sages believed the bee could confer eloquence. For this reason the Delphic Oracle was also referred to as the Delphic Bee, and the infant Zeus was reportedly raised on wild honey delivered directly into his mouth by bees. However it was not until the 18th century that European philosophers first used a microscope to understand the biology of honey bees and constructed a glass walled observation hive. It appears appropriate that Ventura's bee, depicted with minute precision made possible by scientific observation, is perched nearly at the lips of his muse, as though also conferring her with the oracular gifts of eloquence and prophecy in order to narrate the fabulous landscape taking form around her.
Drawing the entire creation together is Ventura's characteristic use of pop iconography, from the colorful bridle of balloons on Pegasus to the Walt Disney toons bursting from the Medical Venus; the scintillating rainbow beam surging from the girl's eye, and finally - the cherry on the cake - a little horror-flick Hello Kitty perched on the girl's finger like a diamond ring. Ventura's brilliant grasp of compelling motifs and his mastery in assembling them into a visual feast of moveable parts is unsurpassed within contemporary culture today.