GLASSBORO, NJ.- Devan Shimoyama draws equally from classical mythology and the cultural landscape of his youth to create works that center the Queer Black male form. Through self-portraiture and tableaux, he reflects on the politics of Queer experience while navigating his own personal narrative.

Working across a wide range of materials and techniques, Shimoyama explores the tension between celebration and silence within Queer culture and sexuality. Referencing the dramatic sensibilities of painters such as Caravaggio and Goya, he layers his surfaces with jewels, glitter, rhinestones, and sequins to evoke both the beauty and alienation of the Black Queer body.

His most recent body of work is inspired by the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck. Shimoyama stages scenes of transformation alluding to the dialogue between genuine and superficial change. The series reflects on our desire to present contained and perfect versions of ourselves, while suggesting how forms of mysticism, such as tarot reading, can illuminate new pathways through turbulent times.

Artist's Statement

My work seeks to examine and uplift the indomitable spirit of the Queer Black male in today’s social climate. A certain reticence about gay male sexuality comes into question, followed by an exploration of locating the Queer Black male body’s role in society and even within the microcosm of gay male politics. Divination, fairy tale, folklore, and mythology greatly influence the narrative element within my paintings as I build my own creation myth of the Queer Black male. I use the language of classical mythology and contemporary stereotype to illuminate a small fraction of that identity.

In Shift, the works feature a range of ways in which I think of transformation and shapeshifting, particularly in its relation to one’s understanding of self. In the paintings, I reimagine various Major Arcana Tarot card compositions, allowing my own impulses and symbols to intermingle with the preexisting canon of artists’, illustrators’, and practitioners’ imagery. Self-portraits donning the hairstyles of music icons reference both drag performers as well as my own lighthearted attempts during childhood to embrace my own Queerness and femininity.

Large-scale portraits of iconic cinematic Black female vampiresses playfully celebrate the power and sensuality of transformation. I use fantasy and fiction to imagine ways to solve real problems and to discover new things about how we navigate the world.

Devan Shimoyama is a visual artist who works primarily in painting and self-portraiture, with works inspired as much by classical mythology as by the culture of his youth. Through his depictions of the Queer Black male form, Shimoyama investigates the politics of Queer culture while navigating his own personal narratives. Shimoyama graduated from Penn State University in 2011 with a BFA in Drawing/Painting. He received his MFA from Yale University School of Art in Painting/Printmaking in 2014. Shimoyama’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States. His solo exhibition Cry, Baby was presented at the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA in 2018. Other major current and recent exhibitions include Devan Shimoyama in The Regional, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO, USA; When We See Us, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, South Africa; Oh, Gods of Dust and Rainbows, at FRONT International Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH, USA; All the Rage, at Kunstpalais, Erlangen, Germany, Shimoyama’s debut European solo museum exhibition. He lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA and is represented by De Buck Gallery, New York.