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Lot Essay
Highly acclaimed contemporary painter Ronald Ventura's works articulate a lush, magical sense of myth and storytelling; exploring the psychological realms of dreams and fantasies. The most critically lauded works by Ventura are those which enact the idea of an individual being subjected to his innermost thoughts, hallucinations, and fantasies; which are potent enough to override his actual reality. Ventura interrogates the concept of what is truly "real" against what is perceived as real by the human mind. Within works revolving around this theme such as Zookeeper (2008), Depth (2008) and Apocalyptic Channel(2011), the central character is caught within a suspended state between realities - as he crosses the threshold between dreams and wakefulness, oblivion and awareness.
In Numb (Lot 7176), Ventura portrays a man asleep, conjuring up a mirage of images which sprout, fully-formed, from his insensate head. This character, which could even be a self-portrait by Ventura, appears to hallucinate a confusion of colorful pop-art forms, skulls, toys, and other figments of present-day society. These chimeras are metaphors for the proliferation of contemporary culture, through the immediate hyperbole of strikingly witty advertisements, cartoons, movies, and other forms of visual gratification. Moving deeper, the artist also unfurls the skin of the figure to show the tendons and sinews beneath the surface. This gives the impression of "peeling back" what we perceive to be "real", the superficial aspect of reality which we believe to be unyieldingly true as long as we can see and touch it. Here, Ventura chooses to show that under one reality lies yet another, and underneath smooth skin actually lays a tangle of musculature, bone, and blood. He throws up the conundrum that if we 'peeled back' the smooth veneer of society, what might we discover therein? Furthermore this device reveals Ventura's fascination with anatomy and his lengthy studies into the human body, resulting in his facility in depicting it accurately and in great detail. Within this work, Ventura has created yet another superb observation of the human condition, and the complex, magical unraveling to be found lurking within our mental chambers.
In Numb (Lot 7176), Ventura portrays a man asleep, conjuring up a mirage of images which sprout, fully-formed, from his insensate head. This character, which could even be a self-portrait by Ventura, appears to hallucinate a confusion of colorful pop-art forms, skulls, toys, and other figments of present-day society. These chimeras are metaphors for the proliferation of contemporary culture, through the immediate hyperbole of strikingly witty advertisements, cartoons, movies, and other forms of visual gratification. Moving deeper, the artist also unfurls the skin of the figure to show the tendons and sinews beneath the surface. This gives the impression of "peeling back" what we perceive to be "real", the superficial aspect of reality which we believe to be unyieldingly true as long as we can see and touch it. Here, Ventura chooses to show that under one reality lies yet another, and underneath smooth skin actually lays a tangle of musculature, bone, and blood. He throws up the conundrum that if we 'peeled back' the smooth veneer of society, what might we discover therein? Furthermore this device reveals Ventura's fascination with anatomy and his lengthy studies into the human body, resulting in his facility in depicting it accurately and in great detail. Within this work, Ventura has created yet another superb observation of the human condition, and the complex, magical unraveling to be found lurking within our mental chambers.