Galerie Kaple will present an exhibition by painter Ivo Sumec entitled In the Garden, which will present a series of large-format paintings prepared especially for this exhibition space. Sumco's work has long focused on exploring the beauty of ordinary things in an extraordinary way - the quiet, unassuming situations, objects and motifs that we normally pass by without paying attention.

His paintings are visually spare, unadorned and focused on the shape, surface, texture and spatial presence of things. The objects depicted are not objects of detailed description but bearers of meaning - they become signs, symbols and general principles of visual experience. Catfish simplifies motifs of the everyday, such as coffee mugs, buckets, tree branches, sleeping bags or work tools, and transforms them into archetypal images carrying silent but powerful layers of meaning.

A specific feature of his work is his work with material. In addition to traditional painterly pigments, he uses sand, red clay, grass, asphalt, charred wood, ash, pieces of tyre or nails. The material here is not just a means, but part of the meaning - a trace of reality, time, wear and tear and physical experience. Catfish "suspends", immobilizes and absolutizes objects, making them generic signs and stable points in a changing world.

The exhibition In the Garden balances between an introspective plane and a generally understandable message. It does not work with effect or shock, but with concentration, silence and inner intensity. The paintings create space for slowing down, concentration and deeper perception, which is not based on a first impression, but on a gradual, inner reading of the image.

"Ivo Sumec creates a world of silent symbols and subtle meanings in his painting. He strips ordinary things of their everyday function and transforms them into universal signs of human experience. His paintings are not a description of reality, but its silent transcription into a visual meditation," writes Tomáš Koudela, the curator of the exhibition, about the artist.

Ivo Sumec (*1970) studied at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ostrava in 1988–1994. Until 2024 he worked as an assistant at the studio of painting at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ostrava. He currently lives and works in Ostrava and Prostřední Bečva and works at the School of Glass Arts in Valašské Meziříčí. His work has long been devoted to painting, material experiments and exploring the symbolism of ordinary things, which he transforms into generally valid visual signs of human experience.