In the eyes of children is a world they can call their own shots. This is the scenario that figures prominently in Olan Ventura’s Flat Reality (Extended), his new one-man exhibit at West Gallery in SM Megamall. Featuring seven new works in oil and acrylic, Flat Reality (Extended) runs until September 19.
Ventura’s image of a flat world involves cartoon characters and playthings usually associated with children. To him, it is where children assume roles and innocently portray associated them as if they actually exist. Being flat, we adults, know that they can’t be real. And this is where Ventura’s imagination flourishes. He creates a world that is colorful and playful, as if painting what his children are thinking when they are playing. One such work involves a child assuming the role of a director and animator at the same time, as different toy figures fill up the composition. Then there is one painting where a child is trying to draw a beloved cartoon character, showing only the outline of the said character in very light stokes. Another features a toy duck surrounded by drawings of a child in his leisure time as well.
Ventura takes on both roles as the creator of the paintings as well as being the child who is simply enjoys his youth and innocence. He knows it’s a world of make believe, but it allows children to choose what they want to be in that particular time. He also likes to reverse roles, such as the work featuring a genie trying to express his wishes to a child carrying him on his back. Ventura wants to capture that childlike fascination with various objects, as he does in the piece where he depicts a clown wearing gloves boxes and surrounds it with small drawings of kangaroos. To Him, it flows so easily: “I enjoy painting what I want to express and already know about,” says Ventura, whose background in animation has steered him toward this creative process. It is also quite relaxing for him, using primary and secondary colors that are neither too loud nor too quiet, and subjects that bring back childhood memories and inspire him to paint more. This is the reason why he felt he needed to mount Flat Reality in a smaller, more intimate setting.
Olan Ventura took up fine arts at the University of the East.
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