Wuppertal, Alemanha, 1963

HEAVEN ON EARTH

Anke Eilergerhard, is internationally acclaimed for her distinctive artistic position within contemporary sculpture. For over three decades, she has explored the motif of the cake as a metaphor for beauty, desire, time, balance and deception, creating a singular and highly recognizable body of work. Since 2004 she has focused on cream topping, which she transforms from a 16th-century occidental courtly technique of cake decoration into an artistic symbol. Her material of choice is highly pigmented polyorganosiloxane (silicone), which she applies using a piping technique to create countless cream toppings—a method she has perfected since 2004. Eilergerhard’s sculptures skillfully navigate the terrain between concrete sculptural form, abstraction, and figuration. They are marked by a unique aesthetic tension—simultaneously sumptuous and restrained—a style the artist herself describes as „purist baroque“. These works seduce with their apparent sweetness and fragility, while revealing a conceptual and formal complexity that invites deeper reflection. A prominent example of her practice is the work cycle “ANNAS“ (2011–2023), in which she combines her iconic silicone whipped cream swirls with fine European porcelain. Sculptures bearing names such as “ANNALOTTA”, “ANNADONNA”, and “ANNAKATHARINA” evoke the imagery of oversized cake decorations while critically engaging with themes of femininity, excess, and cultural stereotypes. The use of porcelain sourced from historic German and Czech manufactories lends the works historical depth and connects them to the rich heritage of European porcelain. These surrealist sculptures, which address femininity, beauty, and cultural clichés, were featured in a major solo exhibition “EILERGERHARD : DOLCISSIMA“ in 2023 at the Hetjens – German Ceramics Museum in Dusseldorf. In 1994, she completed her artistic studies in communication design at Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany. In 1999, she moved to Berlin, Germany. In 2017, the artist‘s spectacular sculptures achieved international renown, which she had created on behalf of FENDI for the luxury brand‘s global flagship stores in New York, Paris, Milan, Berlin, Dubai, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Rome and Shanghai. Her works are held in numerous prestigious collections, including the FENDI (LVMH Group) in Rome, Paris, Hong Kong, Fidelity Investments in London, and the Four Seasons Hotel in Abu Dhabi. Eilergerhard’s sculptures have been exhibited in museums, galleries and art fairs around the world—from Germany and Switzerland to Canada, Türkiye and the United States.

The artist describes the cream topping as “the perfect sculptural form” and “a piece of heaven on earth.” She attributes a cosmic quality to the shape, seeing in it a reflection of humanity’s longing for paradise. In a visually fixated society, Eilergerhard notes, the sense of sight is particularly susceptible to deception – a theme that permeates her entire artistic practice. Her work invites viewers to interrogate the boundaries between art and kitsch, tradition and innovation, surface and depth. With her unmistakable visual language and conceptual rigor, she has made a lasting contribution to the discourse of contemporary sculpture.

”My observations and experiences form the basis of all my work. My aim is to make visible things that I cannot put into words and yet are universal.
A layer cake with whipped cream is a piece of heaven on earth. For me, whipped cream is the perfect sculptural form. It has something cosmic about it. It reflects the longing for paradise. We live in an extremely visually fixated society; no sense can be deceived as much as the sense of sight.“