Butterflies for 2025

My thoughts on butterflies trending in art for 2025 and onwards.

The butterfly is only beautiful because the caterpillar is brave.

Hello Tiny Art People,

Yesterday, I was on Instagram when a delightful painting popped up on my feed by my friend and London-based artist Daniela Raytchev; it is an abstract piece, pink with blue accents, completed with handmade, stained-glass butterflies whose delicate nature is contrasted by the brutal-looking spikes they have on their wings. Given that my permanent love affair with complicated pink has re-emerged, I couldn’t have been happier to come across it.

London-based artist Daniela Raytchev and her stained-glass butterflies

However, there is another reason why this art struck me personally, and that is because I have been trying for over a month to complete this article about my thoughts regarding butterflies in 2025. Thanks to Daniela for the much-needed stroke of inspiration.

This whole butterfly thing all started back in August 2024, when my friend and colleague that I has just met, Joana, took me over to see UK artist Dominic Harris’s digital installation of Butterflies on New Bond Street. The piece below, “World Stage” is digital and kinetic; when you move your hands across each butterfly- the butterfly flies away across the piece. Ultimately, the butterflies return to their intended design, after evoking a feel of whimsy, freedom and joy. You can see a glimpse of the piece in action on my Instagram here.

Dominic Harris’s “World Stage” at Halcyon Gallery on New Bond Street, in London, England

What has since transpired since is what I refer to as the butterfly effect, literally and figuratively. After my experience with this piece, I suddenly started to notice butterflies were cropping up everywhere.

The red car theory

At first, I thought maybe what I was experiencing was the “red car theory,” ie. once you buy or admire a red car, you start to see the red car everywhere. Technically, this is referred to as the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon, which presents the idea of “frequency illusion”; once something has caught our attention, and we become open to it, we start to see it more and more, even though hypothetically the thing in question was always there. The red car theory also presents the notion that by developing a mindset of curiosity and openness, and actively seeking out opportunities for learning, we can unlock potential for growth, success, and fulfillment in different areas of our lives.

I LOVE this theory…having spent a lifetime immersing myself in art, I am always paying attention to my visual surroundings everywhere I go, therefore constantly looking for patterns, visual consistency and art as a means of communicating a deeper meaning. I think you’ll find the more you play around with this theory in your own life, the truer it becomes.

British artist, Damien Hirst, also known for painting butterflies (L to R- Me and one of Damien’s butterfly pieces for sale at Frieze art fair 2024, a proper photo of the piece in question, and a 2024 Christmas window installation at Selfridge’s featuring butterflies by Damien Hirst)

By November 2024, I was seeing the winged creature emerge in fashion as well (see photo above of Damien Hirst’s install in Selfridges). Over the last five six months, I snapped photos of the butterflies that have come up for me in art and subsequently in popular culture, and I have come up with a little art theory of my own:

that one of the most famous and aesthetically beautiful symbols for change, one that resonates eternally with humanity, natures tiniest dancer, the butterfly, will become increasingly popular in 2025 and onwards as a way for society to visually communicate the ongoing cultural and social changes we are currently undergoing in the present day, and in even more so since 2020. 

Do you agree?

Left to right - 1. Maria Merian, the first butterfly painter from 1701-05 2. Andy Warhol’s 1986 butterflies on paper at Frieze 2024 3. A recent piece by Canadian artist Carl White at Gallery Marricks in Vancouver, B.C. 4. Butterfly series by artist Lavinia De Rothschild 5. The 2024 official portrait of King Charles featuring a tiny butterfly by Jonathan Yeo 6. Butterfly Effect Collection by Christina Vega & London Art Exchange 7. “Shot Me Down” by famous French butterfly artist Lis Sam, 8. Salvador Dali 1956 “Landscape with Butterflies” 9. London-based Dutch artist Bouk de Vries and his broken ceramic art

Van Gogh’s Moth

This article operates on the acceptance of the idea as the butterfly serving as a visual symbol for transformation, rebirth, hope and new beginnings. A beautiful representation of the cycle of life, death and rebirth. However, it’s only fair that I bring up the equal counterpart of the butterfly- enter, the moth. Like butterflies, moths are often used as symbols of transformation and growth. Unlike butterflies, though, moths are generally under-appreciated (this is lightly put, I am certainly not a fan) and connected with many darker and less positive themes, like death and self-destruction, which could also said to be quite poignant these days.

The thing they both have in common is transformation.

Van Gogh Butterflies and the Great Peacock Moth 1889-1890 in Arles, France

For one year, from May 1889-1890, Van Gogh was in a self-committed institution near Arles, France. At this time, he was creating some of his best work including “Starry Night”, that looked and felt “more like music, and less like sculpture” as he described in a letter to his brother. As this time, he was creating work inspired by his surroundings, and therefore painted series of butterflies and flowers, and famously one Moth, in a piece called the “Giant Peacock Moth.” He originally sketched it, fearing he would have to kill it in order to paint it, and was too astonished by its colours to consider killing it. He later decided to paint the moth, using his drawing as a model, and depicted a kind of skull on the back of its body.

In my opinion, the painting he completed of the moth is much more fascinating than the butterflies and grass. Van Gogh was known for painting his emotionally intensity; his choice to paint the moth so vividly, and with a skull on its back, is curious. Perhaps an homage to the darkness that resides in all humans. “Giant Peacock Moth” by Van Gogh is currently on display at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

L-R 1. A textured-moth piece from Frieze 2024 (artist unknown sorry) 2. Papillon Crepuscule by artist Tracy Porter 2024 3. Butterflies by Odilon Redon, 1910

Butterfly or Moth?

I know that sometimes the world feels weird, lately maybe even more so than usual, and I know that our tiny little human souls typically don’t love the change and uncertainty, but the butterfly is only beautiful because the caterpillar is brave. As we cope with things in our own ways, it is helpful to remember that the only thing you have control over is whether you will you become a butterfly or a moth.

Heimlich the Caterpillar finally becomes a Butterfly in the movie “ANTZ”, 1998.

Since I put my mind to finishing this article, infamous trend-setting PANTONE has put out a digital artwork containing (pink) butterflies which you can see here.

Red Car Theory or reoccurring trend, what do you think?

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XOXO

Amédée