Cake, the latest graphics series by Sonja Vulpes, focuses on the intimate questioning of self-love through the motifs of self-portraiture, cake and flowers. The artist explores personal states of mind which stem from childhood memories and feelings of carefree and joyful birthdays.

This is not a nostalgic return to the past, but rather a starting point offering a reflection of the current time: how self-love is formed, when it becomes an act that requires conscious effort, and how we experience it in the present moment. The central visual element of the cake is not just a symbol of celebration, it carries a more complex connotation.

Conventionally it marks milestones and commemorations, herein it becomes an extension of the body – a metaphor for personal identity, which the artist explores through (self-)image. Cake does not thematise self-love as a singular feeling of happiness, but as a process often marked by doubt, vulnerability and the recognition of one's own worth.