Once a year, the Esbjerg Art Museum asks a Danish artist to be his or her own matchmaker and invite an exhibition partner from abroad. This summer, painter Claus Carstensen doubled up with Cologne-based colleague Peter Zimmermann under the title “X-pollination (hænging og høring)” (Hanging and Hearing). On first sight, the pairing of Carstensen’s coded surfaces and Zimmermann’s mute, shimmering ones look more like a showdown than a pas de deux—the Copenhagen tough guy versus the Cologne hipster. But they share one major concern that goes to the bone of their style, namely, the emphasis on