MEDEL GALLERY SHU will host Taro Yamada’s solo exhibition, The Frozen Butterfly in the Greenhouse, from Friday, February 14 to Wednesday, February 26.

Born in 2001, Taro Yamada is an emerging artist enrolled in the first year of the Printmaking Course at Musashino Art University’s graduate program.

Yamada navigates between painting and digital illustration, creating works based on places he has visited. His semi-autobiographical artistic world has gained popularity for its ability to depict the space between the visible and the reflected. Though his delicate, ephemeral, and gentle style appears soft at first glance, it also evokes a subtle sense of unease, strongly impacting viewers through this contrast.

His artworks, which feature beautifully crafted backgrounds and characters with a certain languidness, seem to offer comfort while simultaneously hinting at the shadows of society.

For this solo exhibition, the main visual is based on the Adachi Ward Biological Park Greenhouse. Through this theme, Yamada explores the concept of existence and society in his work.

“Even if the butterfly I saw that day in the greenhouse has transformed into an entirely different being, we would never notice that change.

I contemplate existence and society.
The world is in a constant state of flux and uncertainty, and we too are merely drifting within this flow.

A greenhouse is an artificial environment that defies the laws of nature, much like modern society.
Within its walls, plants and butterflies that should wither in winter are shielded from frost, allowing them to survive.
The fluttering frozen butterfly is a symbol of life protected.
While it is kept safe from the dangers of survival, it also loses the role it was meant to play outside the greenhouse, along with its boundless freedom.

I waver between the solitude of protection and the comfort of confinement.
Within this fluctuation, I trace the contours of myself, others, and the world around me.”

—Taro Yamada