Liking to think that Karels' paintings capture a moment that is still going on. Beyond the edges of the painting, outside the frame, live the people drinking from those glasses and sucking smoke from those cigarettes. Like a magnifying glass, the painting zooms in on a special part of an everyday situation.

Karel presents tables accompanied by a collection of man-made objects. Vases, mirrors, wine glasses, cigarettes and of course ashtrays. Everyday items we can't imagine living without. And conversely, without us using them, these “tools” would amount to pointless materials. That ashtray would be strangely out of place if it were forgotten in a field of grass, only to be crushed by herds of wild bison or eroded by rivers, utterly useless, surrounded by the weeds that grow intertwined. That ashtray, lying on this rotating moving machine we called earth.

From NL contemporary