Manok Ventura / Olan Ventura
Exhibition opening
Sunday, November 22, 2020 | 2 – 6pm
Secret Fresh Gallery
Ronac Art Center, Ortigas Ave, 1502 San Juan, Philippines
Olan and Manok Ventura team up in a two-man show titled Hocus Unfocus, bringing together their interventions to some of the most familiar pop culture icons of our time. The exhibition gathers the superheroes and protagonists whose lives and adventures have been continuously told in comics, films, animations, and television shows. For many, these characters have given them their first taste of fiction in their childhood, becoming the objects of aspiration and role models of their naïve consciousness, and in their adult life continue to marvel their imaginations and satiate their craving for pastime and entertainment. The two artists present these figures in ways that challenge their power and visibility. We see their blurred images in Manok’s works, a vision inspired by the faulty reproduction and transmission of images through digital technology. In Olan’s pieces, they come in the form of action figures—bound, tied, and pinned to walls. In such encounters, we may revisit their significance in our personal lives and in contemporary society.
A fine arts graduate from the University of the East, Roldan “Manok” Ventura’s art has been inspired by human errors, urban phenomenon, and digital technology. His paintings have explored visual formations produced by decay and deterioration among surfaces in the urban setting, accidents and neglect, and more recently, glitches in the circulation of digital images online.
Rolando “Olan” Ventura is also an alumnus of the University of the East, where he graduated with a degree in Fine Arts. His art has dealt with themes ranging from identity, technology, popular culture, and expressions of Filipino cultural traditions in contemporary life. In his latest body of works, he explores the chaotic melding of colors in erroneous printing to represent the festive Filipino aesthetic sensibility.
This two-man show is curated by Ruel Caasi, in collaboration with the Secret Fresh Gallery X The Working Animals Art Projects (TWA).
