Using the historical casting technique known as the lost wax method, Olivia Berckemeyer (German, b. 1968) forms the original model from which her sculpture is cast by dripping layers of molten wax over forms. It is thus unsurprising that her finished bronze works resemble nothing so much as the mounds of wax surrounding great candlesticks in gothic cathedrals or gradually constructed rock formations in forgotten caves. The manner in which Berckemeyer’s sculptures seem to groaningly emerge from their pedestals calls forth the immense strength used to dredge these melting memories from the morbid and mysterious recesses from which they came.

Berckemeyer was born in Munich, Germany in 1968. She studied at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1992-1997 and now lives and works in Berlin. She has exhibited internationally, participating in solo and group shows in cities such as Berlin, Düsseldorf, Antwerp, Zürich, Vienna, New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, London, Istanbul, and Venice. Her work can also be found in several collections, such as the Boros Collection, the Wurlitzer Collection, and the Landwehr Collection in Berlin, and in the KISS Collection.