Zapp Maldonado

Zapp Maldonado is a self-taught Brazilian painter, designer, and writer living in Bali, Indonesia.

Zapp’s art expresses the intense emotional complexities of the human soul through the human form. He explicitly states, “The human figure to me is a doorway to discussing the anatomy of the soul – not the physical aspects of the human condition. When I portray our frail and earthly mortal configuration, by proxy, I am inviting viewers to look into our inner selves. I want them to roam unexplored and sometimes treacherous spaces within the hidden nooks of our beings.”

Zapp's art is a unique blend of influences, drawing deeply from post-war German expressionism and the neo-expressionist movement of the 1980s. However, his style is not confined to these influences. Zapp's work also reflects a re-discovery of the classic works of Renaissance masters, resulting in a dynamic interplay between technically rigorous, well-defined images and the more visceral, angst-intriguing elements of jarring distortion and vivid exaggeration. 

Zapp's artistic process is a testament to his self-taught nature. He primarily uses acrylic on canvas for painting and charcoal for sketching, a choice he attributes to his lack of formal training. However, this restraint in material experimentation does not limit his creativity. Instead, Zapp sees it as a stepping stone, an initial exploration that will eventually lead him to new and innovative ways of expressing our most fundamental existential inquests.

1997, Zapp lost all his manuscripts and early works when his home in Bali burned down. Around the same time, Zapp started a family and launched ZAPPdesign – his furniture design brand. These events occurred one after the other, leading Zapp’s life in a completely different trajectory. Zapp’s artistic and literary ambitions were put on hold for nearly 20 years until recently when a personal crisis that resulted in the separation from his family and an accident that forced him to lay immobile for two months pushed Zapp’s return to painting and writing. 

Today, Zapp combines and alternates his art and literature practices to manifest his multi-artistic expressions. “I love creating cerebral worlds by communicating them through a narrative in writing or forming visual depictions through impactful iconographies.”

When not in the studio painting, Zapp can write in his favorite coffee shop in Canggu, a popular area of Bali, or check the waves for a morning surf session.