Ronald Ventura b. 1973

The painting is in good condition. The canvas is in good condition with a clear and taut surface and no retouching was detected upon examination under ultraviolet light. Paint layers are intact.
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Rendered in acrylic and oil on canvas, Pinamumugaran (Nesting Ground) features two bodies wearing gas masks. The man and the woman have slightly upraised heads with tense neck muscles, as if grasping for air and as if in pain. On top of their heads are conglomerations of images randomly highlighted, mostly painted yellow and red, against a largely monotone background.

 

Ventura's highway of the human mind is choked with a density of images of publicity as portrayed by the convolution of faunas (such as the ravens insects, monkeys and dogs) and follies (such as Satan, clowns, and women's bodies in various state of undress). By painting them in flashy colors that signify universal warnings, he skillfully maps out and editorializes the complex lattice of human anxiety continually molded by the endless impulse to act upon desires and deliriums.

 

Ventura's two-fold execution of the painting, mixing bodies rendered in hyperrealism and iconic images in a flat, cartoonish manner invites us to look at disparate perceptions/realities of the human condition. He paints a picture of the inconsistencies of living in an increasingly modernized, commercially-driven landscape where human capacity is equated by one's amassed capital, by the ability to procure and consummate desires. Ventura's premise is that humans are in a constant state of dissatisfaction, a never-ending longing for what could be. Hence, humans are subjected to the cruel spiral of commodification wherein the body is both the buyer (to increase its value) and the commodity, as Ventura portrays in the naked body of the woman in the background surrounded by insects. The body is a specie under scrutiny, targeted for makeover and then displayed for profit.

 

The panoramic view of the background shows a state of flux. The smoke mass connotes an explosion, the clouds are literally dripping, and a spaceship is launching.  Everything is in suspended animation, signifying transition or transformation, which is precisely the promise of commercialism. The body becomes. This conditioned longing for transformation and the daily actions to slake this desire, makes humans both victims and purveyors of the cut-throat system of capitalism. Hence, Ventura's gas masks on the characters in the painting. He opens the discourse to ambiguity, on whether the contagion is brought on by the environment (in which case the humans have to protect themselves) or if the toxicity is brought on by the humans, the human capability in particular (in which case, they have to wear protective masks so as not to infect others.). Thus the title, Pinamumugaran (Nesting Ground) exposing the human with his various capacities and limitations, as both the victim and the enemy.