EDUARD HERMANS
He is a visual artist based in Amsterdam whose sculptural practice examines power, ego, and the fragile architecture of identity. Working primarily with porcelain, glass, and ceramic, Hermans creates luminous forms that seduce the viewer with smoothness and refinement, only to reveal a raw and unsettling reverse side. His sculptures invite admiration — and then quietly disrupt it.
Hermans’ fascination with form began in childhood, shaping sandcastles that rose and vanished with the tide. At eleven, encountering the crows and jewels in the Tower of London ignited a lasting preoccupation with royalty, spectacle, and authority — themes that continue to echo throughout his work. Today, these early impressions manifest in porcelain figures that hover between regality and rupture.
Central to his practice is what he describes as “yelling ambiguity”: faces caught mid-scream, anatomies stretched between elegance and distortion. The scream in Hermans’ work is not theatrical but existential — an expression of the tension between individual identity and collective pressure.
In Screaming Royals, humans are portrayed as sovereign beings crowned by their own ego. Each sculpture functions as a chapter in a visual novel, where royalty becomes both aspiration and burden. The works shimmer with aristocratic whiteness, yet the figures appear strained beneath the weight of their symbolic crowns.
This inquiry expands in installations such as Olichargs, a constellation of sixteen porcelain and glass sculptures reflecting contemporary fears surrounding authoritarian power and the erosion of autonomy. In Royal Hardware, seventy-two porcelain and glass tiaras form a dazzling display, inviting viewers to imagine selecting their own crown — their own constructed identity. The installation questions what remains of royalty when everyone claims it. Meanwhile, Royals Matter proposes equality as both promise and paradox: if all are royal, all are equally vulnerable.
In Mutiny – The Artifice of Rebellion, Hermans presents glazed porcelain figures clad in fragile contemporary armor. White, grey, and black surfaces suggest protection, yet the material’s inherent brittleness exposes the vulnerability beneath. Here, rebellion itself becomes aesthetic — a choice between performative resistance and authentic self-determination.
Across all series, Hermans transforms porcelain — historically associated with wealth and refinement — into a medium of psychological tension. His sculptures shimmer with beauty, but they never allow comfort. They hold the viewer at the edge between attraction and unease, asking not who rules, but what it costs to be crowned.
