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Artist statement

I paint to see how I view the world.
I am driven above all by the question of how we humans shape the world and its landscapes.

How do our little lifes and the way we lead them look like from the outside? What do we leave behind? And (how) can I uncover these physical and social remains?

Oil painting as a technique enables me both to search, which I can pause and resume at will, and to work in layers, which in a way reflects and records this process.
Motives from landscape painting, which tends to be a traditional, romanticizing art form, are particularly appealing to me, as incorporating the social, the human, is especially challenging.

About the artist

Large-format canvases are his preferred medium: Malte Hein is a painter and trained graphic designer. Coming from a rather small-scale illustration background, he has devoted himself almost exclusively to oil painting since 2020.

His often sparse, obscure figures and landscapes leave room for dark forebodings, but without rashly extinguishing the little light completely. Themes such as time, encounters and loneliness repeatedly enter the stage, but are rarely depicted explicitly. What remains are contradictions and ambiguous moods with which the viewer is left alone.

In September 2021, his painting Generations was shown at the virtual exhibition New Era by artnumber23.

His first solo exhibition took place in Berlin in April 2022 under the name AUFRISS – Time, landscape, family. Based on  conversations with relatives and research into his family history, Malte presented twelve oil paintings from the last two years.

His second exhibition, Where is everyone?, followed in Freiburg in November 2023. New works, some of them originals from the AUFRISS exhibition, as well as framed prints were exhibited between November 2023 and March 2024. What they all had in common was a vague feeling of existential loneliness, whether as part of a group or alone.

He exhibits as @maltehein.de on Instagram and Saatchiart.

If you are interested in objects or commissioned works, please write a message under “Contact” or send an e-mail to kontakt -at- maltehein.de