Highly acclaimed Filipino artist Ronald Ventura is most recognised by his exquisite hyperreal paintings depicting intricate coatings of images and styles superimposed on the human body. For Ventura, this layering tool illustrates the multifaceted identity of the Philippines where the influences of Spain, Japan and the United States run deep.

The emphasis on materials at STPI led Ventura to respond not just in ways that led to a thorough exploration of print and paper as a creative medium; it also prompted new reflections on the state of nature and its depleting resources. Ventura communicated the potential hazards or trappings of our modern preoccupations by utilising this juxtaposing of images, layering pop culture and classical painting references with signifiers of destruction, through paper cast impressions of furniture reliefs from the Philippines or his drawings on lithography. The collaboration brought a combination of unlikely methods and materials that resulted in prints taking on a three-dimensional form, pushing norms in the way one considers the medium.

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