Renowned contemporary Filipino artist Ronald Ventura presents his latest works in Tanod-Diwa (The Sentinels), starting June 8, 2025 at Pinto Art Museum in Antipolo.
The show, a collaboration between Pinto and Cloudgrey Gallery, is curated by Ruel Caasi. Anchored in Ventura’s exploration of fragmented identities and sacred imagery, Tanod-Diwa is a journey through myth, memory and the shifting shapes of cultural guardianship. The exhibition confronts and reimagines Filipino figures of protection (heroes, saints, and gods) through layered works that blend religious iconography, colonial relics, and contemporary deconstruction.
‘Bulong Ed 1/1’ (2025), pigmented ink, acrylic & oil on museum etching fine art paper
Ventura draws inspiration from antique saint statues, Rizal busts, carved wood, and sacred architecture, reconfiguring them into hybrid beings that guard not only history, but also the ghosts within it. In his signature visual style, an intricate collision of realism and distortion, he renders protectors not as fixed icons, but as restless travelers, shifting forms that echo through time and belief.
Set within the contemplative surroundings of Pinto Art Museum, the exhibition invites viewers to step through metaphorical doorways: thresholds where the spiritual and the political blur, where tradition is both revered and ruptured.
From ‘Tanod-Diwa’
From ‘Tanod-Diwa,’ Untitled, oil on canvas
From Ronald Ventura’s ‘Tanod-Diwa’
Tanod-Diwa marks a powerful new show by Ventura, who continues to challenge and reframe the iconography of nationhood, faith and the collective subconscious. The exhibition will feature sculptures, drawings, prints, and automotive art.
The show runs until July 6, 2025.
At exhibit opening at Pinto Art Museum, Ronald Ventura (far right) with, from left, sculptor Ramon Orlina, Pinto Art Museum founder Dr. Joven Cuanang, TheDiarist.ph founder/editor Thelma Sioson San Juan
