Manok Ventura explores the many creative possibilities he could make with different textures in Compressed Tangibility, his latest one-man show at West Gallery. “It’s all about textures – both man-made and natural,” he describes. “My eyes captured them as abstract. But the result of my approach is photorealist.”
Other than concentrating on texture as a key element for this exhibit, Ventura notes that his subjects have remained largely unplanned and incidental. His main objective here is to convey to the audience that not everything the eyes see is true.
He demonstrates this in a nature-driven 5’ x 7’ work, from which he developed the over-all concept of the exhibit. Then, on the other side of the spectrum is a 5’ x 3’ mixing plate, one that was created by man unintentionally. Each work on the exhibit rises above the two-dimensional quality of a painting, giving the viewer a glimpse of every possible nook, cranny, and crease.
To fully appreciate Ventura’s new works is to take time to look at them both up close and from afar, with the awareness that the real purpose of art is to let us see beyond what our eyes can.
