Leading Filipino artist Ronald Ventura keeps gallery goers on their toes by constantly refreshing his practice all the while keeping a tone and stylistic detail that is highly distinctive. For “Recyclables,” an exhibition of over 40 new works at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Ventura has produced for the first time some stunning 2-D paper works, rich in details and depth.
Visually complex, the series explores humanity’s relationship with its environment and in particular, the theme of recycling. Here the artist not only uses recycled paper and discarded urban materials, but also recycles stories and imagery from popular culture and folklore to produce multi-layered works.
Ventura’s paper trees in “Into the Woods” are imposing monumental canvas collages of paper casts and rubbings of traditional Filipino wood panels and furniture, originally trees and now reincarnated into new art forms, while in his more delicate “Shadow Forest” he melds together paper faces, skulls, and animals into tree sculptures mounted onto dramatic back-lit canvases.
“Point of Know Return” is formed by the distinctive shapes and colors of aluminum hazard warning signs, embellished with a selection of cartoonish characters, skulls, and gas masks in lithography. The road signs allude to the dangers of focusing too much on the trappings of modern society.
“Eden, Broccoli Cloud” is an installation of large papier-mâché sculptures, a cross between clouds of nuclear destruction and genetically modified broccolis. Ventura’s paradoxical garden alludes to unknown menaces unfolding quietly.
“Recyclable” runs until 15 December at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute
AS FIRST PUBLISHED FOR ARTINFO.COM