Ventiko

BOG:

Ventiko has been a photographic artist since taught to use a Pentax K 1000 camera by her father at age 9. Blessed to apprentice under Maestro Tony Clevenger, Ventiko moved from Indianapolis, Indiana to New York City to pursue her craft in 2008 and currently resides in Brooklyn.

Ventiko’s photographic work has been shown in both group and solo shows internationally. Currently she has work in the exhibition La Petite Muerte in London and LDN-BCN in Barcelona with work to be exhibited in December at Gallery Ho, Chelsea, New York City. She is preparing for a residency at The Wassiac Project in Upstate New York in April and a Solo Show in New York City in May 2013.

Earlier in 2012 she completed the A.L.A.S. Residency in London immediately after participating in an exhibition during Bushwick Open Studios leading a group of 23 other artists who participate in her creation – the well-known monthly Animamus Art Salon.

In 2011 she was represented by Joanne Artman Gallery at Photo L.A. and has work in the permanent collection of The Kinsey Institute. Ventiko has created multiple public installations for both Oranje of Indianapolis and Nightmare Haunted House of New York City and her latest commission involves creating wearable sculptures from recycled milk cartons for the performance troupe Sylva Dean and Me.

STATEMENT:

My work brings the darkness and unpredictability of the human mind to the forefront, disguised as beauty. Blurring the line between the photograph and the photographed, I reveal a melancholic parable familiar to most, yet rarely celebrated. I construct and photograph elaborately detailed three-dimensional sets which incorporate Western symbolism, archetypes, dramatic lighting and staging to echo as well as re-interpret Italian Renaissance paintings, while probing the boundaries between the beautiful and the grotesque.  The viewer is invited to participate in a voyeuristic experience encouraging exploration of his or her perception and interpretations of the visible world, and the concepts of right/wrong, good/evil, and beautiful/ugly.