Shu Yonezawa "Voiceless Voice"

Shu Yonezawa is a highly anticipated emerging artist whose interdisciplinary practice spans contemporary art and animation. In recent years, Yonezawa has participated in numerous group exhibitions and art festivals, actively presenting works across video, painting, and installation. Her practice centers on the concept of anima (“soul”), the etymological root of the word animation, exploring the corporeality of characters in digital animation alongside the embodied emotions and inner lives of living beings in the physical world. In 2022, Yonezawa presented no name (Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo [OPEN SITE 7]) and Obake no B’: The Movie (NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC]). That same year, she also participated in “Planet Zamza,” an exhibition held at an abandoned factory. In 2023, she presented several solo exhibitions, including “Happy Birth” (PARCO MUSEUM TOKYO), while expanding her artistic practice by working on VJ performances, music event planning, and artworks for album covers and music videos. In 2024, Yonezawa presented the solo exhibition “Skin of the Sea, the Bones of the Absent” at SNOW Contemporary. In 2025, she presented works in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including “Pavilion ZERO” (Kasai Rinkai Park) and “Pavilion ZERO Documents Room” (Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT]). That same year, she was selected for the inaugural Japanese edition of the artist-in-residence program by LVMH Métiers d'Art, and presented the solo exhibition “Scars of Light” at La Main in Paris, further expanding her activities overseas. This exhibition, Yonezawa’s third solo presentation at SNOW Contemporary, is centered on the paintings she has developed in recent years. According to Yonezawa, the more she attempts to define the contours of a character through painting, the more ambiguous its presence becomes, while traces of what remains unpainted or overlooked emerge with increasing intensity. Through this process, she found herself returning to a fundamental question: What is it that shapes a character (anima)? Drawing on Yonezawa's background in animation as its point of departure, this exhibition explores the nature of the “character” before it is reduced to personality or narrative. We recognize others through bodies, gestures, voices, language, cries, individuality, and countless other attributes. These elements do not constitute a fixed essence. Rather, they exist as overlapping and constantly shifting signs. Yonezawa attempts to approach the anima that exists prior to the formation of character, something that cannot be fully grasped through signs alone. At the same time, she seeks to engage with the moment when the contours and fluctuations of a world begin to emerge before characters are codified and assigned meaning. Through paintings, drawings, video, and sculptural works, Yonezawa seeks to give form to the exhibition's central idea, “Voiceless Voice,” to life in the gallery space. We cordially invite all to experience firsthand the new corporeality of Yonezawa’s characters and the shifting contours of their presence in this exhibition.