Ivan Pavle Wanderings through the Labyrinth

Ivan Pavle is one of the most prominent figures in Slovak painting. Since the 1980s, he has been creating works that explore the relationship between humans and the world around them – nature, other people, and themselves.

He is a sensitive observer of rapidly changing reality and its internal tensions. In his paintings, he conveys this through a combination of abstract and figurative painting, spontaneous gestural expression, and references to traditional themes such as the human figure, the male and female principles, the animal world, the four elements, and the Tower of Babel.

The collection of paintings Wandering Through the Labyrinth represents Ivan Pavle’s extensive work, in which the labyrinth symbolizes human existence. It is a journey of searching, mistakes, obstacles, discovery, and inner struggle. Pavle projects events from the outside world into his paintings, transformed by personal experience and emotional gestures. He uses color to create tense yet calming spaces that balance between reality and dreams.

Figurative motifs reveal the spiritual layers of man with his secrets, while natural elements and animal symbols represent the unlimited and unbridled energy of nature, which transcends man’s efforts to subdue it.

The collection of paintings presents an artist who constantly tests the validity of traditional values and the importance of communication. Pavle’s paintings act as visual maps of the world in which we seek the right orientation or its “mystical truths.”

Exhibition curator: Miro Zeman

Biography:

Ivan Pavle (1955, Galanta) grew up in Prievidza. In 1981, he graduated in monumental painting from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava (Prof. Castiglione, Prof. Vychlopen). Since the second half of the 1980s, he has regularly exhibited in Slovakia and abroad; his works are part of public and private collections around the world. He has completed creative residencies in the USA and France, where he won the Jury Prize at the International Painting Festival in Cagnes-sur-Mer in 1989.

He lives and works in Bratislava. He devotes himself to painting, drawing, illustration, sculpture, and object creation. In his work, characterized by the intertwining of abstract and figurative painting, he has long explored the relationships and values that are the essence of human existence. His work is extensively covered in two monographs.

Location: Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Čunovo, Slovakia

Date: from  09. 12. 2025 – 08.02.2026

Opening hours:

Monday – closed
Tuesday – Sunday from 10:00 am – 6:00 pm

Entrance fee:

Adults – 12 €
Family (2 adults and 2 students) – 25 €
Pensioners (over 62 years old) – 6 €
Students – 6 €
Children (under 6 years old) – Free
Members of the Danubiana Club – Free
Disabled persons, persons over 75 years old – Free

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