Ronald Ventura Bridges Venice and the Philippines in Luna at the 2026 Venice Biennale

As a collateral event at the 2026 Venice Biennale, Ronald Ventura connects Venice and the Philippines through their shared experiences of life shaped by water in the exhibition Luna.

There may be thousands of miles between Venice and Manila, but connecting them has never been an issue for Ronald Ventura. This idea sits at the core of his exhibition Luna, now an official collateral event of the 2026 Venice Biennale.

Presented by MUSE Science Museum Trento and Castel Belasi, and the Contemporary Art Center for Eco Thought, the exhibit is part of a public program called the “We Are the Flood” platform. Hosted at Docks Cucchini, a historic Venetian space linked to the shipbuilding tradition, Ventura presents 12 works, including paintings, video installations, and sculptures that center on the realities of waterways in Venice and the Philippines. The works will be on view until November 22, 2026.

Recalling the beginning of Luna, Ruel Caasi, curator of the exhibition, shares that the first thought that came to their minds when they developed the concept was to make a connection between Venice and the Philippines, exploring links, similarities, or parallels between the two places. “When we think of Venice, there’s the popular imagery of historic canals and gondolas navigating waterways. It’s a city built on water. The Philippines, of course, also has an essential connection to water. As an archipelago, its culture, history, and contemporary life are greatly shaped by the rhythms of water,” he says. “Ronald Ventura’s hometown happens to be Malabon, a city that lies in close proximity to Manila Bay, where flooding is part of the lived reality of the residents. So we decided the exhibition to be a vivid conversation between the two cities that share a lot of common experiences, though geographically distant. And behind the rise and fall of water levels in the two places is the pull of the moon.”

The setting of Luna is a combination of works across genres, spanning oil paintings to charcoal drawings, sculptural compositions in resin to sculptures in Murano glass, alongside video installations. Caasi mentions that the use of these materials is not coincidental, as Murano glass connects to Venice’s heritage and represents a craft the locality takes pride in. Metaphorically, both Murano glass and resin undergo intense transformation before taking their final form, reflecting the same fluidity that characterizes the natural environments of the two cities.

Beyond the materialities, as curator, Caasi realized that the eclectic mix of figural styles in Ventura’s art allows for a multitude of interpretations. “His complex layering and juxtapositions of images may represent Filipino identity on the one hand, but also capture the frenetic flow of information in the global community,” he adds. In this context, Caasi emphasizes that Ventura’s works (while known for blending hyperrealism, surrealism, and pop imagery) resonate with both historical themes and contemporary life. “For the exhibition Luna, Ventura’s style easily lends itself to the complexity and ambiguity of the relationship of the two cities to water. The works bring to life histories and memories through metaphors as well as direct references, in a highly immersive visual experience.”

As part of the collateral events of this year’s Venice Biennale, Caasi says the exhibition offers representation beyond the framework of the nation-state, highlighting the limitations of organizing a global art event strictly around national identities. “Through the exhibition, I also hope the viewers will be more attentive to the regular but subtle and quiet rhythms of life, just like the pull of the moon and the movement of water, things that almost go unnoticed in our daily lives yet transform us in profound ways.”