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Lot Essay
"Beware that, when fighting monsters, you do not become a monster yourself. For when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
Friedrich Nietzsche
The significance of Ronald Ventura's works within the visual landscape has informed a new way of approaching contemporary culture, leading to Ventura's stature as one of the most sought after artists within Asian art today. Ventura is a child of the pop and avant garde-era; the penchant for collaging the "myths of everyday life" which symbolize the illusions and realities of contemporary society is prevalent within his works. Each creation by Ventura is never an individual narrative in itself but rather a synthesis of disparate elements, overlaid with the artist's perfect photorealist technique melded with rich signifiers and pop iconography. 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. Abyss is a complex and visually ambitious creation, referencing tropes of philosophy, psychology, religion - but predominantly concerned with the theme of self-realization and inner integrity. Epic in dramatic content and physical scale, beholding Abyss in person creates a huge monumental impact upon the viewer.
Staring into the Abyss
In his latest work, Ronald Ventura - just like Nietzsche before him - stares into the abyss and the abyss dutifully stares back. The swimming pool is rendered as a liminal space - the suspensive, non-gravitational quality of water creating an atmosphere of transcendence, where just about anything can happen. The act of swimming is used as a metaphor for diving, going into secretive depths, probing into the mysteries of the Void. Ventura's strategy of juxtaposing hyper-realistic figures with images from art history and pop culture is on full display within this work. Lacking gravity's pull, the figures paddle amongst satyrs and sea monsters as though wending their way through human temptation and obstacles. As in Nietszche's famed aphorism in his treatise Beyond Good and Evil, Ventura contemplates the dangers of battling monsters (a metaphor for evil) and being corrupted by them, thereby becoming a monster oneself. Within Abyss, the figure of a young boy wearing swimming goggles boldly cleaves his way through the water, undeterred by the writhing tangle of anthropomorphic figures or the great white shark lurking below. Ventura tends to project his perspective through a child's eyes, suggesting to viewers that a child's gaze is pure, untrammeled, and rife with the powers of imagination - thereby gaining the strength of the innocent - which is how one should confront the external world, and best the monsters.
In order to fully appreciate a visual composition by Ronald Ventura, a viewer must first learn to suspend his disbelief. Just like Heracles completing his Twelve Challenges to attain immortality, Ventura imagines life as a series of Olympian hurdles for the anti-hero to overcome. However the biggest challenges of all are those which emanate from one's own mind. Existential or moral crises, essentially philosophical concepts, are given living form as fantastical creatures under Ventura's brush, which plague the protagonist before finally being subjugated. The moral dichotomy of good and evil is made clear through contrasting the young boy against the monstrous apparitions in the pool. On the right side of the pictorial plane, another swimming figure is portrayed, this time wearing a gas mask. As opposed to the child whose face is uncovered and possesses the 'gaze of innocence', the gas-mask wearing figure represents a slightly older character who has learnt to efface his emotions and identity, the act of 'masking' which we all go through as we pass through childhood into an adult environment. Like the mask-wearer, as we add layers of subterfuge to our identity, we too risk losing our humanity and transitioning into monsters. The two figures could also represent a parent and child scenario, with the artist portraying himself as he shepherds his child through the maze of life, knowing that he must let him brave the dangers head-on yet still unwilling to let him face the journey unaccompanied, even if he has to follow behind by several paces.
Through imbuing physiognomy with psychological undertones, Ventura illustrates the machinations and hidden layers beneath our physical world. The visual juxtapositions which emerge: human versus monster, uncovered features versus obscured identity, adult versus child, even monochrome versus color within his painting palette, create paradoxes of perception and the sense of one reality imposing upon another. Through the introspective and haunting aesthetic of Abyss, the seductive dive into the pool of the Conscious and the Unconscious continues for Ventura.
Friedrich Nietzsche
The significance of Ronald Ventura's works within the visual landscape has informed a new way of approaching contemporary culture, leading to Ventura's stature as one of the most sought after artists within Asian art today. Ventura is a child of the pop and avant garde-era; the penchant for collaging the "myths of everyday life" which symbolize the illusions and realities of contemporary society is prevalent within his works. Each creation by Ventura is never an individual narrative in itself but rather a synthesis of disparate elements, overlaid with the artist's perfect photorealist technique melded with rich signifiers and pop iconography. 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. Abyss is a complex and visually ambitious creation, referencing tropes of philosophy, psychology, religion - but predominantly concerned with the theme of self-realization and inner integrity. Epic in dramatic content and physical scale, beholding Abyss in person creates a huge monumental impact upon the viewer.
Staring into the Abyss
In his latest work, Ronald Ventura - just like Nietzsche before him - stares into the abyss and the abyss dutifully stares back. The swimming pool is rendered as a liminal space - the suspensive, non-gravitational quality of water creating an atmosphere of transcendence, where just about anything can happen. The act of swimming is used as a metaphor for diving, going into secretive depths, probing into the mysteries of the Void. Ventura's strategy of juxtaposing hyper-realistic figures with images from art history and pop culture is on full display within this work. Lacking gravity's pull, the figures paddle amongst satyrs and sea monsters as though wending their way through human temptation and obstacles. As in Nietszche's famed aphorism in his treatise Beyond Good and Evil, Ventura contemplates the dangers of battling monsters (a metaphor for evil) and being corrupted by them, thereby becoming a monster oneself. Within Abyss, the figure of a young boy wearing swimming goggles boldly cleaves his way through the water, undeterred by the writhing tangle of anthropomorphic figures or the great white shark lurking below. Ventura tends to project his perspective through a child's eyes, suggesting to viewers that a child's gaze is pure, untrammeled, and rife with the powers of imagination - thereby gaining the strength of the innocent - which is how one should confront the external world, and best the monsters.
In order to fully appreciate a visual composition by Ronald Ventura, a viewer must first learn to suspend his disbelief. Just like Heracles completing his Twelve Challenges to attain immortality, Ventura imagines life as a series of Olympian hurdles for the anti-hero to overcome. However the biggest challenges of all are those which emanate from one's own mind. Existential or moral crises, essentially philosophical concepts, are given living form as fantastical creatures under Ventura's brush, which plague the protagonist before finally being subjugated. The moral dichotomy of good and evil is made clear through contrasting the young boy against the monstrous apparitions in the pool. On the right side of the pictorial plane, another swimming figure is portrayed, this time wearing a gas mask. As opposed to the child whose face is uncovered and possesses the 'gaze of innocence', the gas-mask wearing figure represents a slightly older character who has learnt to efface his emotions and identity, the act of 'masking' which we all go through as we pass through childhood into an adult environment. Like the mask-wearer, as we add layers of subterfuge to our identity, we too risk losing our humanity and transitioning into monsters. The two figures could also represent a parent and child scenario, with the artist portraying himself as he shepherds his child through the maze of life, knowing that he must let him brave the dangers head-on yet still unwilling to let him face the journey unaccompanied, even if he has to follow behind by several paces.
Through imbuing physiognomy with psychological undertones, Ventura illustrates the machinations and hidden layers beneath our physical world. The visual juxtapositions which emerge: human versus monster, uncovered features versus obscured identity, adult versus child, even monochrome versus color within his painting palette, create paradoxes of perception and the sense of one reality imposing upon another. Through the introspective and haunting aesthetic of Abyss, the seductive dive into the pool of the Conscious and the Unconscious continues for Ventura.