Unravel / 2025 / CCAM

Unravel 
Ernesto Artig
Acrylic and mixed media on canvas
100 × 100 cm
2025
 
Unravel explores the tension between containment and release, the need for structure, and the moment that structure starts to feel too tight. The work begins with a rhythmic, spontaneous grid: a visual framework that offers balance and direction. But at its centre, a thick, red, organic mark disrupts the logic. It’s not an act of destruction, but of emotional release, a shift from control into something more raw, more alive.
 
The contrast between rigid lines and the central gesture speaks to a deeper process: the way we hold ourselves together until something inside us insists on being felt. The painting captures that threshold, between neatness and mess, thought and impulse, holding on and letting go.
 
Unravel doesn’t collapse the system; it opens it. There’s clarity in the looseness, truth in the mess. It invites the question:
What if letting go is where something real begins?
 
Unravel & Ignite
Together, Unravel and Ignite trace two states within the same emotional arc. Each work begins with a framework—lines and angles that promise order—and each disrupts it in a different way.
 
In Unravel, the grid loosens, making space for a raw gesture that pushes past containment. In Ignite, the structure holds, concentrating energy at its core until it radiates outward.
 
They are not opposites but counterparts: one speaking in the language of release, the other in the language of gathering. Seen together, they invite us to consider the shifting balance between holding on and letting go, between the moment a structure serves us and the moment it transforms.