{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":118,"auction_id":1,"set_id":1,"lot_number":"80","artist":"Ronald Ventura (b. 1973)","title":"Intersection","starting_price":1000000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 2020 (lower right)","medium":"oil on canvas, fiberglass and resin","size":"artwork: 16” x 12” (41 cm x 30 cm)\nincluding frame: 32” x 28” x 2 1/2” (81 cm x 71 cm x 6 cm)","property":null,"coa":"Accompanied by a certificate signed by the artist\nconfirming the authenticity of this lot","provenance":null,"exhibited":"Secret Fresh Gallery, BenCab x Ronald Ventura, San Juan City, October 26 -\nNovember 5, 2020","literature":null,"write_up":"Ronald Ventura's Intersection formed part of a landmark joint exhibition that witnessed his historic collaboration with National Artist for the Visual Arts Benedicto Cabrera. Titled \"BenCab x Ronald Ventura,\" the one-of-a-kind show was mounted at San Juan City's Secret Fresh Gallery.<br /><br />It was a momentous occasion in every sense of the word.<br /><br />Moreover, it was a brave event, especially considering the time it was held: in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. The show proved art's unfaltering relevance amid a global crisis and its power to convey humanity's repressed and confused state.<br /><br />In that successful show, Ventura imbues his works with that sense of relevance and serious gravitas, a needed catharsis from the pains of the pandemic.<br /><br />In the show's exhibition notes, curator Ruel Caasi writes: \"The forging of these analogous elements revisits the narratives woven and dialogues initiated by the artists in their respective practices, and at the same time generate new meanings as they resonate with concerns and issues of the present.\"<br /><br />Intersection, the work at hand, emerged as one of the most frank and thought-provoking. It narrates the severity of human lives, living in their harshest times and experiencing the most unrelenting conditions when the world came to a sudden, unexpected halt.<br /><br />In Intersection, Ventura depicts a portrait of a naked man\nrendered in the artist's ever-incredible hyperrealist visual\nvernacular. Metal railings, which resemble prison bars, gradually penetrate through the man's skin. At the same\ntime, a chaotic ensemble of figures consisting of letters,\nnumbers, and various symbols seemingly fall off from out\nof nowhere, representing both his consciousness and\nsubconsciousness in a state of disarray.<br /><br />The work is a harrowing depiction of humanity's second\nfall, but this time not to the pitfalls of sin but to the stresses\nand anxieties of the pandemic. The metal railings represent\nthe repressive and seemingly endless cycle of lockdowns,\nwith their rusting state alluding to how we all have become\n\"rusted\" in the face of chaotic doubt and unfortunate\ndismal flux brought by a virus that humanity scrambled to\nunderstand and contain. The frame, with its metal-like forms,\nalso implies life's rigidity in 2020.<br /><br />The work is a harrowing depiction of humanity's second\nfall, but this time not to the pitfalls of sin but to the stresses\nand anxieties of the pandemic. The metal railings represent\nthe repressive and seemingly endless cycle of lockdowns,\nwith their rusting state alluding to how we all have become\n\"rusted\" in the face of chaotic doubt and unfortunate\ndismal flux brought by a virus that humanity scrambled to\nunderstand and contain. The frame, with its metal-like forms,\nalso implies life's rigidity in 2020.<br /><br />Indeed, the work at hand depicts an intersection—the\nmeeting point between humanity and its glaring vulnerability\nin the most uncertain of times, in which precariousness,\nchaotic restlessness, and worsening anxieties all abound.\nVentura conjures up an image of the new normal, a renewed\nstate of affairs where humanity had already succumbed to\nthe abyss of tribulations. (Adrian Maranan)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":0,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":0,"userBid":5930,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"UNSOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":0,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":93,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/1/1/lot/80.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[900000,1000000,1100000,1200000,1300000,1400000,1500000,1600000,1700000,1800000,1900000,2000000,2200000,2400000,2600000,2800000,3000000,3200000,3400000,3600000,3800000,4000000,4200000,4400000,4600000,4800000,5000000,5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":79,"next":81,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}