R. Cabrera (XX) - Curiosidad en la ecera

R. Cabrera - "Curiosity in the Fish Tank"
Oil painting - Hand-signed - 2023

Artwork by the artist R. Cabrera (XX), executed in the oil on canvas technique.
We guarantee a durable product with visual quality.
Dimensions: 80 x 60 cm painting with a depth of 3 cm.
On the back of the piece, you will find the details about the work.
The shipment will be made through United Parcel Service (UPS) for Spain and Europe, and through Fedex for the rest of the world.
The work will be rolled up and will be protected by several layers of packaging, bubble nylon, and placed in a sturdy tube.
Once the work has been paid for, three days are required for the packaging process and delivery to the shipping company.
The piece will arrive within ten days, depending on the destination country.

The oil painting on canvas we behold is a scene frozen in the exact moment when feline curiosity becomes action. A calico cat, with an intense gaze and a flexible body, has brazenly invaded the enclosed space of a fish tank, overflowing the boundaries of the object and of everyday logic with a gesture as playful as it is unsettling.

From a technical standpoint, the treatment of the oil painting demonstrates masterful execution of detailed realism, combined with a slightly caricatured approach in exaggerating movement and proportions. The precision in representing textures—from the cat's silky fur to the water's paused fluidity—speaks of a deep knowledge of the pictorial medium. The flat background, warm and uniform beige, directs all attention to the central scene without any distraction, harking back to a classic tradition of centered composition, where each element is placed with narrative intention.

The water, painted with dynamic brushstrokes and graphic precision, overflows to either side of the rim of the fishbowl, as if the glass itself yields to the wild impulse of the animal. It is a moment of contained rupture, a micro-explosion in time. The fish, unaware of its fragility, seems to turn slightly toward its visitor, caught in the middle of a silent dance with its fate. This narrative tension creates a powerful dialogue between action and pause, between instinct and contemplation.

Conceptually, the work presents a playful meditation on boundaries. The fishbowl symbolizes a closed world, an artificial safety zone, which is violently intervened by the natural force of play and desire. The cat represents not only feline curiosity, but irrepressible vitality, that impulse to know which can, at times, disrupt the balance. The scene holds just before the chaos, in a kind of tense harmony that fascinates with its moral ambiguity: is this play, hunting, or a metaphor of power?

Symbolically, the cat and the fish function as complementary opposites: the terrestrial and the aquatic, the predator and the prey, instinct and delicacy. But both are contained within the same sphere, forcing the viewer to question the boundaries between the world of one and the other, as well as the barriers between observer and observed.
"Curiosity of the Aquarium" is a work that combines technical virtuosity with a powerful narrative construction. Through a seemingly simple scene, it raises deep visual questions about desire, risk, and the fragility of balance. Painted with the freshness of the anecdotal and the symbolic density of classical art, this canvas becomes a story held still just before its ending, like a sigh that has not yet finished exhaling.