Ronald Ventura is a contemporary artist who was born in the year 1973 and hails from Manila, Philippines He graduated from the University of Santo Tomas in 1993 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting After graduating he stayed on at the university as an instructor and had his first solo show in the year 2000 titled ‘All Souls Day’ at the Drawing Room, Makati City, Philippines followed by Innerscapes at the West Gallery Megamall in Mandaluyong City held in the same year He has participated in the Prague Biennale in the year 2009 and the Nanjing Biennial in 2010 In 2001 he was awarded the Artist of the Year Prize from Art Manilla and received an Ateneo Art Gallery, Studio Residency Grant in Sydney in the year 2005 for his series ‘The Human Study’ In 2011 he was awarded another residency at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute Ventura takes his inspiration from multiple faces right from conceptual and figurative to pop art They focus on equally diverse issues like using the human body to comment on social issues or dealing with the theme of diaspora and the sense of dislocation that persists His artworks are highly coveted and are a part of many private collections making him one of the leading artists in the Southeast Asian Art The artist lives and works in Manila, Philippines