ABOUT THE WORK

When Ronald Ventura burst into the scene with his highly distinctive brand of figuration, many immediately took notice, as he was perceived to be one of the torch bearers of Philippine art into the 21st century. A collage of different elements from pop culture, art history, and everyday life characterizes his works, suggestive of the post-modern condition. Located in different areas of the canvas, they resist offering a coherent narrative but instead delight in multiplicity and fragmentation. The best quality of Ronald Ventura’s pop-surreal-hyperrealism style is exemplified by this work, Funny Songs. With the title of the painting rendered upside-down on the canvas and serving as visual anchor, the work teems with images from a variety of sources. The most recognizable is Mickey Mouse cut in half and whose back is turned to us as if he is conducting an invisible orchestra. Wasps and bees frolic in a tub of sweetness. A child with a luminous, marmoreal complexion is an iconic Ventura, having made an appearance in his other works. Monochromatic and energetic, Funny Song possibly alludes to childhood, replete with wonder, innocence, and an immediate attraction to the uncanny. It’s at once a celebration and lamentation to what Freud considered as the fundamental bedrock of future identity. Funny Song invites the viewer to enter the space of childhood once more, in which contradictions are conditions of being, dangers are invitations, and the little toys of initial devotion are imbued by a touch of the divine