Raquel Ventura and Felipe Olavarria, both Chilean born, are famous and skillful self-made Visual Artist. Their family origins respectively are, Raquel from Spain with some Jewish background and Felipe from the Basque Country in Spain. Felipe Olavarria achieved a degree in Architecture at Viña del Mar University, Chile, as well as a degree in Advertising at the Santiago Universidad Estudio del Pacifico, Chile, and was trained as Cinema Screenwriter at the Academia Factoria del Guion, Madrid, Spain, by Fermin Cabal, director with famous moviemaker Pedro Almodovar. From early age, Raquel built up her passion to become a Visual Artist.

Ventura and Olavarria Collage Collaborative will exhibit for their main debut with Contemporary Art Projects USA at Palm Beach Modern and Contemporary Fair, March 24-27, 2022, their artworks “Menage a Trois”, 74 H x 50 W inches, including frame, and “Lady in Pink” made of cut photographic paper, resin and acrylic painting. Previously to this participation, a major special Exhibition Installation by Ventura and Olavarria Collage Collaborative was presented for one month in Santiago de Chile at the most important and largely celebrated Edificio Alonso, Grupo Patio.

Ventura and Olavarria Collage Collaborative most used techniques for creating their artworks are the three collage cutting techniques of photographic paper, hand cutting, scissors cutting and surgical knife cutting. The connecting and background techniques for fill in are made with acrylic painting and pencils. For the finishing technique, the duo completes their artworks by coating with one or more layers of resin.

The most essential creative concepts that inspire and guide Ventura and Olavarria Collage Collaborative team are to reach harmonic compositions that merge messages with a colorful appearance and to conceive artworks to be observed by viewers motivated for the quality of each cleverly solved detail. The themes in the artworks carry meanings that suggest order in contrast with disorder and a social past that creates emotions. The subjects on the artworks will present famous people, like actors, models, singers, or leaders, depicted on well-known magazines from where the photographic cuts will arise. In addition, several collages are based on familiar comic’s characters and smart human successful achievers, such as astronauts or athletes.

Collage as an Art Form surfaced in the works of Cubists masters Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, then had a vital role in the stages of Modernism. Collage allows artist to explore at once the space between high art and popular culture, past and present, text and image, figuration, and abstraction, also reaching two and three- dimensional elements. Pablo Picasso said: “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” Several images can be organized into depictions showing urban elements as cityscapes, skyscrapers, or by integrating images linked to daily life reality. The artists instantly will connect viewers with their work of art by motion and color. The designs evolve with the passage of time reflecting a growth and maturation of the society and the artists.

Mariavelia Savino
Art Curator Contemporary Art Projects USA