In his works, Malte Zenses combines techniques of abstraction with questions from the fields of graphic design, semiotics and subculture. His creative process often includes personal experiences, which he has first gathered into an archive of drawings, and which he later carries over into his works as abstract codes. Zenses’s artistic practice can therefore also be described as the appropriation, translation and recycling of experienced reality.

Built up from superimposed layers, his pictures reveal a variety of processing methods. Precisely placed markings and surfaces meet letters and ciphers, accompanied by note-like drawings. With their subdued colours – the artist uses primarily black, white and select pastel shades – and monochrome surfaces that allow partial views of the untreated canvas below, the works testify to a confrontation with the moment of emptiness and the fragmentary.

Complementing an approach that unites the conceptual with the gestural, a preoccupation with the space is another central point of departure in Malte Zenses’s artistic practice. This is also reflected in his minimalist sculptures, which engage in dialogue with the pictures as fictitious communication partners and further densify the connecting lines established within the space.