_the_crack/ (2026) Original Mixed-media Painting by Ilya Vartanian

_the_crack/ is built around a narrow vertical rupture cutting through a dense blue field. The break becomes the central event of the image — a point where visual continuity is interrupted and another state seems to emerge from beneath the surface.
The image passes through drawing, photography and the digital environment before being manually transferred onto canvas using acrylic medium. Each stage alters the image and becomes part of the next, leaving traces of the process embedded in the final surface. Acrylic functions here as part of the transfer and material construction of the work rather than as a conventional painting medium. The result is a technological palimpsest in which figuration and abstraction coexist.
The work is presented on unstretched canvas.
No generative AI was used in the creation of this artwork.

Materials used:

mixed media and image transfer on canvas

Details:

• Mixed-media painting on Canvas
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 23.62 x 31.5 x 0.04" (unframed)
• Signed certificate of authenticity
• Style: Abstract
• Subject: Abstract and non-figurative