Willehad Eilers, known professionally as Wayne Horse, is a German artist based in Amsterdam.
Willehad Eilers was born in 1981 in Peine, Germany. He graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and completed a residency at Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam.
Eilers produces multidisciplinary projects that combine graffiti, animation, and installation, often presenting figurative and narrative elements. He has exhibited internationally, including at Harlan Levey Project, Unruly Gallery, Mediamatic and This is Mama (Kunsthal Rotterdam). In 2007, he presented the work Elefant Boy at the Impakt Festival, which incorporated animation and storytelling techniques. Eilers' solo exhibitions include Happy Holidays Forever (2018) and Alter Senator (2016).
His work is held in collections such as the Lisser Art Museum, Völklinger Hütte and Colección SOLO.
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.
His film Alter Senator was featured in the 2016 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).
In 2023 Eilers published the artist book A Dance on the KnifeâÂÂs Edge with the German publishing house KERBER Verlag in collaboration with Galerie Droste.
Critics and curators have described Eilersâ work as a form of âÂÂethnographic surrealism,â a term used in exhibition texts and reviews to characterize his combination of surreal imagery with observations of social and everyday life.
References to Eilersâ work appear in art magazines, exhibition catalogues, and festival descriptions. His show Love Boat at Galerie Droste (2021) is listed in Monopol Magazin.
Institutional press lists and gallery announcements indicate ongoing critical engagement with his work across Europe. Listings include coverage of "Alle Gegen Alle" in Dutch arts and culture magazine Mister Motley and an article titled La morale dâÂÂune orgie monstrueuse in La Libre (2023).