Open your heart (2022)Acrylic painting by Luis López Cabán

Open Your Heart, 2022

In Open Your Heart, I explore the unsettling idea that vulnerability is not always pure, comforting, or beautiful. The painting shows a man dressed in a black suit pulling open his chest, as if inviting us to look inside. Instead of flesh or a human heart, however, a velvet curtain appears, slightly parted, like the entrance to a hidden stage.

From the darkness behind this curtain, small hairy hands with claws cautiously emerge. They do not fully reveal the creature to which they belong. Something remains concealed, watching from the shadows.

With this image, I wanted to reflect on the distance between the person we present to the world and the deeper forces that inhabit us. The suit represents order, control, and social identity, the polished exterior we construct for others to see. Behind it, however, another presence exists: instinctive, ambiguous, perhaps even monstrous.

The creature inside the chest does not leap out or attack; it simply peeks through the opening, as if uncertain whether it has permission to exist. In this sense, the painting reflects an existential tension: the hidden truths we carry within ourselves and the things we carefully conceal behind the structures of identity and civility. When we open ourselves honestly, we do not always encounter beauty or clarity. Sometimes what appears are fragments of the unknown, instincts, fears, or uncomfortable truths about who we are.

Through this work, I wanted to suggest that the human interior is not a simple space of light, but a layered and mysterious terrain where shadow and truth coexist. To open one’s heart, therefore, is not only an act of love, it is also an encounter with the deeper and sometimes unsettling realities that inhabit us.

Opening the heart does not always reveal light; sometimes it reveals the shadow that makes us human.

Artist note:

The artwork offered here is a unique original painting created by me in 2022 in Hamburg.

My paintings are part of private collections in Berlin, San Juan, Los Angeles, Dallas, Paris, Buenos Aires, Singapore, Bogotá, New York, Michigan and Madrid.

Please note that the perception of colors may vary slightly depending on individual monitor settings.

If you have any questions about my work or would like additional photos or videos with more detailed views of the painting, I would be happy to provide them. Please feel free to contact me.

SHIPPING DETAILS

◾ This painting will be carefully packed with the utmost attention and shipped free of charge, rolled in a strong protective cardboard tube to ensure safe international transportation. The artwork will be sent via UPS with tracking and is expected to arrive within approximately 4–7 days, depending on the destination country.

◾ Rolled canvas works can easily be stretched onto wooden stretcher bars and/or framed by a professional framer upon arrival.

◾ The artwork is signed by the artist.

◾ Please note that the artwork is not externally framed. The canvas is shipped rolled for safer international transport and can be professionally stretched or framed once received.

◾ Buyers are responsible for any import duties, customs fees, or local taxes that may apply depending on the regulations of the destination country.

◾ Returns are accepted within 14 days of delivery. In the event of a return, the buyer is responsible for the return shipping costs, and the artwork must be returned in its original condition and packaging.

◾ If you have any questions regarding shipping, packaging, or the artwork itself, please feel free to contact me. I will be happy to assist you.

Materials used:

Acrylic on canvas

Details:

• Acrylic painting on Canvas
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 60 x 80 x 3.5cm (unframed) / 60 x 80cm (actual image size)
• Ready to hang
• Signed on the front
• Style: Surrealistic
• Subject: People and portraits

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