Willehad Eilers, DER HAMPELMANN, 2025, detail

Willehad Eilers' practice, developed under the alias Wayne Horse, is rooted in a sustained inquiry into the ambivalent excesses of Western society. Eilers has long been preoccupied with what he describes as the "wallowing of pigs in paradise," the way material abundance and the absence of genuine hardship redirect human desire inward, toward self-optimization and the performance of fulfillment. His work probes the narrow spectrum of what contemporary culture presents as success or a "fulfilled life," with social media serving as both subject and symptom: a theater of perpetual, reckless leisure. Rooted in the tradition of German critical painting, his visual language echoes the satirical grotesque artists of the 19th and 20th century and the biting social commentary of Neo-Expressionism, recast through the vernacular of contemporary popular culture. Eilers navigates this terrain through humor and irony, deploying cheerful exaggeration to close the distance between viewer and subject, between society and its reflection.

Eilers graduated from the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam (2010). Recent solo exhibitions include CRUEL SUMMER at Buysse Gallery, Belgium (2026), BORED TO BE ALIVE at Galerie Droste, Germany (2025), Bis Ich Schlafen Kann at Galerie Droste, France (2023), SCHWANZWALD at Harlan Levey Projects, Belgium (2023), Holiday on Horse at Harlan Levey Projects, Belgium (2022) and LOVE BOAT at Galerie Droste, Germany (2021). Notable group presentations include the Musée de l'Hospice Comtesse, France (2025), Stedelijk Museum Breda, Netherlands (2025), Centraal Museum Utrecht, Netherlands (2018), Kunsthal Rotterdam, Netherlands (2016) and the Venice Biennale, Italy (2009) among others. His works are held in the collections of the Lisser Art Museum, the Hunting Group Collection, the Green Family Collection, and the Colección SOLO.