Shuhei YAMADA
Japan
Yamada, born in 1974, is currently based in Kyoto and actively engaged in artistic activities. He received the New Cosmos of Photography Excellence Award in 2003, has held solo exhibitions in Tokyo, London, and New York, and in 2013 was noticed by Eric Shiner, then director of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, becoming the only Japanese artist in the curatorial section of that year's Armory Show, which garnered significant media attention.
Deeply interested in nihilism, Yamada creates many works by exploring contemporary society. He works with a variety of media, including photography, video, installation art, and graphic design, but a common feature in his work is a sharp perspective, akin to an overhead view. Yamada's works carry a sense of irony, sometimes even seeming a bit comical, but he captures various subjects and phenomena from a unique distance, creating slight "deviations" in viewers' perceptions that prompt them to question what they see.
Major solo exhibitions include ARTRO (Kyoto/2024), SOKYO ATSUMI (Tokyo/2023), Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation (London/2019), AISHONANZUKA (Hong Kong/2017, 2016, 2014), The Armory Show (New York/2013), and CAPSULE (Tokyo/2012).
Key group exhibitions include "KUROOBIANACONDA 05 SUKIYAKI" at AISHONANZUKA (Hong Kong/2023), "MIKADO2 My Baby Collection" at TEZUKAYAMA GALLERY (Osaka/2022), "Positionalities" at Kyoto City University of Arts Gallery @KUCA (Kyoto/2022), "Next World: The Power of Dreaming, Taguchi Art Collection × Iwaki City Art Museum" at Iwaki City Art Museum (Iwaki/2021), and "Unclear Nuclear" at URANO (Tokyo/2016). He received the New Cosmos of Photography Excellence Award in 2003 and participated in the ISCP Residency Program (New York) in 2017. His works are held in the collections of Taguchi Art, the G Foundation, and others.
Photo by Takeru Koroda, courtesy of Kyoto City University of Arts