Sorsogon State College

Sorsogon City
Engineering-Architecture Department

Sean Andrew B. Grutas Art Appreciation

RONALD VENTURA

Ronald Ventura is a contemporary Filipino artist known for his dynamic melding of realism, cartoons, and
graffiti. Portraying scenes of chaotic disarray, Ventura culls from science fiction, Western history, Asian
mythology, Catholicism, and popular comic book characters, in producing his work.
“I will paint and update a painting until I am satisfied. It’s like a film director who is
shooting a scene—at certain points he will feel like he needs more extras or more
light,” he said of his working method. “This is the closest analogy to my painting
process that I can think of. It is like a process of addition and subtraction.” Born in
1973 in Manila, Philippines, the artist earned a BFA in painting from the University
of Santo Tomas in 1993. In 2011, Ventura’s painting Grayground set a record for
the most ever paid for a work of Southeast Asian contemporary art, when it sold for
$1.1 million at Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Paintings
auction in Hong Kong. His work has been reviewed in The New York Times, and is
included in many private collections. Ventura continues to live and work in Manila,
Philippines.

Ronald Ventura (Filipino, b.1973) was born in Manila, Philippines. In 1993, the
artist earned a BFA in Painting from the University of Santo Tomas. After
graduating, he worked at the university as an instructor. Ventura had his first solo exhibitions in 2000, called All
Souls Day, which was held at the Drawing Room in Makati City, Philippines, and Innerscapes, which was held at
the West Gallery Megamall in Mandaluyong City.

Since then, Ventura has continued to refine his signature style of multi-layered paintings, which utilize a broad
range of imagery and tend to focus around the human form. In addition to paintings, Ventura also makes
sculptures that explore the same themes and aesthetics as his two-dimensional works. In 2001, he received the
Artist of the Year prize from Art Manilla, and then in 2005, he won the prestigious Ateneo Art Gallery, Studio
Residency Grant in Sydney, Australia, for his The Human Study series of graphite works on canvas. He also
participated in the Prague Biennale in 2009.

Ventura had his first exhibition in America at Tyler Rollins Fine Art Gallery in New York in 2009; Metaphysics
of Skin contained paintings and the Zoomanities sculpture series. The same gallery hosted his A Thousand
Islandsshow in 2011. That same year, Ventura’s Greyhound sold for US$1.1 million at Sotheby’s Contemporary
Southeast Asian Painting auction in Hong Kong.

Timeline
1973
Born: in Manila, Philippines
1990
Shell National Students Art Competition, First Place.
1993
B.F.A. in Painting, University of Sto. Tomas, Manila, Philippines
1993
Taught at College of Fine Arts & Design, University of Sto. Tomas, Manila, Philippines
1993
Recipient, Jurors’ Choice Award
1998
Diwa Ng Sining Drawing Category, Second Place.
1998
Philip Morris Philippine Art Awards, Jurors’ Choice Award.
1998
National Commission For Culture & Arts and Pap Lithograph Competition, First Place.
1999
Winsor & Newton Painting Competition, Jurors’ Choice Award.
1999
Taiwan international Biennale Print and Drawing Competition, Finalist.
2000
Philip Morris Philippine Art Awards, Finalist.
2000
Metrobank Art Competition, Honorable Mention.
2000
Taiwan International Biennale Print and Drawing Competition, Finalist.
2001
Art Manila Newspaper’s Artist of the Year
2002
Recipient, Jurors’ Choice Award
2003
Recipient, 13 Artists Award
2005
Ateneo Art Awards winner

2007
Guest Residence Artists, Artesan Gallery + Studio, Singapore.
2008
9th OITA Asian Sculpture Exhibition Open Competition, Award of Excellence, Japan.

Exhibitions

2014 Bulul, Ronald Ventura and the traditional art of the Philippines, Museo delle Culture, Lugano, Switzerland.
(solo exhibition)
E.R (Endless Resurrection), Tyler Rollins Fine Art, New York, New York, USA (solo exhibition)
2013 Voids and Cages, Galerie Perrotin, Hong Kong (solo exhibition)
2012 Watching the Watchmen, Vargas Museum, Quezon City, Philippines. (solo exhibition)
Recyclables, Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore. (solo exhibition)
Fiesta Carnival, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, Italy (solo exhibition)
2011 A Thousand Islands, Tyler Rollins Fine Art, New York, New York, USA (solo exhibition)
Surreal Versus Surrealism in Contemporary Art, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, Valencia, Spain
Humanime (I), Fine Art Centre, Eslite Building, Taipei, Taiwan (solo exhibition)
2010 Nanjing Biennale, Nanjing, China
A Duad in Play: Francis Ng and Ronald Ventura, ICA Gallery, Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore
Converging Nature, The Drawing Room, Makati City, Philippines. (solo exhibition)
Ronald Ventura: Fragmented Channels, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, Italy. (solo exhibition)
2009 Metaphysics of Skin, Tyler Rollins Fine Art, New York, New York, USA (solo exhibition)
Major Highways, Expressways and Principal Arterials, Akili Museum of Art, Jakarta, Indonesia. (solo exhibition)
Prague Biennale, Prague, Czech Republic
2008 Mapping The Corporeal, Museum of the National University of Singapore. (solo exhibition)
Zoomanities, The Art Center Megamall, Mandaluyong City, Philippines. (solo exhibition)
2007 Illusions & Boundaries, The Drawing Room, Makati City, Philippines. (solo exhibition)
Under The Rainbow, West Gallery Megamall, Mandaluyong City, Philippines. (solo exhibition)
Antipode: The Human Side, Artist Residency, Artesan, Singapore. (solo exhibition)
2006 Cross Encounters, Ateneo Art Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines. (solo exhibition)
Dialogue Box, West Gallery Megamall, Mandaluyong City, Philippines. (solo exhibition)
2005 Human Study, The Cross Art Projects, Syndey, Australia. (solo exhibiiton)
Morph, West Gallery Megamall, Mandaluyong City, Philippines. (solo exhibition)
Recent Works, Big & Small Art Co. Art Fair, Singapore (solo exhibition)
Human Study, The Art Center Megamall, Mandaluyong City, Philippines. (solo exhibition)
Cross Encounters: The 2005 Ateneo Art Awards Exhibition, Power Plant Mall Rockwell Center, Makati City,
Philippines
2004 Korea Asian Art Festival, Inza Plaza, Seoul Korea
19th Asian International Art Exhibition, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan
Dead-End Images, The Art Center Megamall, Mandaluyong City, Philippines. (solo exhibition)
Black Caricature, Big & Small Art Co., Megamall, Mandaluyong City, Philippines. (solo exhibition)
Contrived Desires, West Gallery Megamall, Mandaluyong City, Philippines. (solo exhibition)
2003 X-Squared, West Gallery and Big & Small Art Co., Philippines. (solo exhibition)
13 Artists Awards Exhibition, Main Gallery, Bulwagang Juan Luna, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Pasay
City, Philippines
2002 Philip Morris Asean Art Awards, Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia
Soft: Tresacidos, Art Center, SM Cebu, Philippines
Visual Defects, West Gallery Megamall, Mandaluyong City, Philippines (solo exhibition)
Body, The Drawing Room, Makati City, Philippines. (solo exhibition)
2001 The Other Side, The Drawing Room, Makati City, Philippines. (solo exhibition)
Doors, The Art Center Megamall, Mandaluyong City, Philippines. (solo exhibition)
The 8th Annual Filipino-American Arts Exposition, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California,
USA
Tresacidos: Small Works, The Enterprise Center, Makati City
Balik Guhit, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Pasay City, Philippines
2000 Innerscapes, West Gallery Megamall, Mandaluyong City, Philippines. (solo exhibition)
All Souls Day, The Drawing Room, Makati City, Philippines. (solo exhibition)
Guhit I, II & III, Ayala Museum Gallery III; UST, Museum Espana; Jorge B. Vargas Museum, University of
Philippines
Mad About Lithographs, Ayala Museum, Makati City, Philippines
1999 Philip Morris Asean Art Exhibit, Hanoi, Vietnam
9th International Biennial Print and Drawing Exhibit, Taipei, Taiwan
1998 1st Lithograph Competition Exhibition, Drawing Room, Makati City, Philippines