Ronald Ventura and Manuel Ocampo engage in ‘Dialogo’
There’s method. And there’s madness. And sometimes the two combine to make a brilliant tuyo sa champorado.
That’s what happens when two globally-known Filipino artists—Ronald Ventura and Manuel Ocampo—mash it up in a workspace at Cloud Grey Gallery, Grand Hyatt Manila Residences, BGC. The show is called “Dialogo” and will open Dec. 9. We got an exclusive peek inside.
On paper, the two styles shouldn’t really mesh. One artist is precise, defined; the other is a mad splatterer. But lining the walls of Cloud Grey, you can barely tell where one artist ends and the other begins. Ventura’s structured collages are dashed with diabolical chili sauce from Ocampo’s brush, and vice versa.
It’s safe to say neither artist knew what to expect. “What will really emerge as a work?” Ventura asked himself. “If you go too deep, you might drown in research. Sometimes in art, what is needed is memory, reaction, impact—that ‘third vision’ that is the combined worldview of both of us. That’s where the dialogue comes out.”
Says Ocampo: “I was also curious because his approach is different, my approach is different. Mine is less refined, his sketchbooks are like a Renaissance master.” And the results? “The collaboration works. It’s beautiful.” That’s when Ocampo compares it to a certain Filipino breakfast porridge the color of dried blood. “You wouldn’t think it would match, but it’s perfect.”
To further the “cooking” analogy, Ventura would be Mr. White to Ocampo’s impulsive Jesse Pinkman. And the results have an unexpected purity —like that chili sauce needed to be there all along.
At Cloud Grey, the two artists walk us through the work area—a table slab set atop wooden sawhorses. It’s something gallery director Ruel Caasi has been doing lately, using Cloud Grey as a launchpad for collabs, including a BenCab x Ventura show several years back. For “Ronald Ventura x Manuel Ocampo: Dialogo,” the artists started with a fairly neutral zone: a black and white digital print, from either artist, as background to work over. They then limited their color palettes to acrylic reds and yellows (you can tell who’s who) in the final layered work.
The collab idea came to Ocampo during lockdown. “I thought, why not collaborate? The people I’ve collaborated with before, they sort of have the same style as my work, (but) with Ronald, it seems to be sort of the opposite, because he runs a tighter ship. He’s very tight, clean.”
“In my own work, I’m a master of the universe,” agrees Ventura, who develops his refined compositions through numerous sketches and studies. Digital prints are then passed back and forth online. The final remix “sessions” took place at Cloud Grey over several weeks. “It’s a little bit complicated in terms of my technical process, but eventually it’s very interesting, because it’s like we’re engaging in different worlds,” says Ventura.
Occasionally, they’d have to wonder if a work was “done” or not. Because of its “divided authorship,” Ocampo says the final work resists being defined. “Because, for me, a certain stroke or a certain symbol means something, while for Ronald, it means something else. So it’s always in flux.”
For Ventura, yellow is the color of caution, showing up frequently in his works as police tape: “It’s like fragility. Like what’s going on today—it’s very cautious.” Ocampo decorates the pieces with Pig Latin invocations emerging from characters’ mouths. The texts are based on a booklet, Templar Oraciones, a kind of syncretic merging of pre-colonial Filipino anting-anting and Catholic esotericism. “If you want to activate an amulet, you do these prayers,” explains Ocampo. “It’s meant to counter evil desires, gayuma, love potions. If someone likes you and gives a love potion, it’s to counteract that.”
We look over the works, which have a graphic immediacy that leaps off the sheets. There’s much to chew on in this champorado: skulls, dogs, crosses, hydrocephalic Richie Rich characters fused with larvae. There is chaos and order, locked in a St. Vitus dance.
“If I could compare it to music, Ronald is goth, I’m more punk,” smiles Ocampo.
But maybe it’s silly to think they’re so different after all. For one thing, both artists are obsessed with corporeality, the manifestations of the body in the world. Second, neither is averse to planting religious symbols in their canvases and compositions. Third, there’s either a sly or overt nod to anti-colonial imagery and themes. A toppling of the guard. An incantation of indigenous oraciones to ward off the charms of the kanos and insulares. All the layering that tells us how Filipino identity is constantly grappling with the past, which is never, ever past.
Ventura reflects on another, more basic, connection: “It started always with drawing. So I think drawing is the connection between us, and so we started with this kind of back and forth.”
Back and forth. Like the Dead Kennedys skateboarding with Dream Theater in a graffiti-spattered empty swimming pool.
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“Dialogo,” curated by Ruel Caasi, is on view starting Dec. 9 at Cloud Grey gallery, 2nd Floor Grand Hyatt Manila Residences, 8th Avenue corner 36” Street Taguig 1635 Metro Manila, Philippines. For information, contact +63956577582 / +639544231037 or email info@cloudgrey.com or visit this link.
