Willehad Eilers
German artist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Willehad Eilers, known professionally as Wayne Horse, is a German artist based in Amsterdam.[1]
Early life and career
Willehad Eilers was born in 1981 in Peine, Germany.[2] He graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and completed a residency at Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam.[3]
Eilers produces multidisciplinary projects that combine graffiti, animation, and installation, often presenting figurative and narrative elements.[4][5] He has exhibited internationally, including at Harlan Levey Project,[6] Unruly Gallery,[7] Mediamatic[8] and This is Mama (Kunsthal Rotterdam).[9] In 2007, he presented the work Elefant Boy at the Impakt Festival,[10] which incorporated animation and storytelling techniques. Eilers' solo exhibitions include Happy Holidays Forever (2018)[11] and Alter Senator (2016).[12]
His work is held in collections such as the Lisser Art Museum,[13] Völklinger Hütte[14] and Colección SOLO.[15]
Eilers designed the WNF Vijfje, a Dutch 5-euro commemorative coin issued in 2011 to mark the 50th anniversary of the World Wide Fund for Nature. The design features a stylized tree spanning both sides of the coin, with the canopy and a linear portrait of Queen Beatrix on the obverse and the root system on the reverse.[16][17]
His film Alter Senator was featured in the 2016 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).[18]
In 2023 Eilers published the artist book A Dance on the Knife’s Edge with the German publishing house KERBER Verlag in collaboration with Galerie Droste.[19][20]
Critical reception
Critics and curators have described Eilers’ work as a form of “ethnographic surrealism,”[21] a term used in exhibition texts and reviews to characterize his combination of surreal imagery with observations of social and everyday life.[22][23][AI-retrieved source][24]
References to Eilers’ work appear in art magazines,[25] exhibition catalogues, and festival descriptions. His show Love Boat at Galerie Droste (2021) is listed in Monopol Magazin.[26]
Institutional press lists and gallery announcements indicate ongoing critical engagement with his work across Europe.[27] Listings include coverage of "Alle Gegen Alle" in Dutch arts and culture magazine Mister Motley[28] and an article titled La morale d’une orgie monstrueuse in La Libre (2023).[29]