DEVAN SHIMOYAMA

Contemporary Art

May 15

Creating a parallel world with the queer culture out front, the American artist knows how to retell the story and capture the public’s attention.

The Philadelphia-born artist (1989) builds a world full of loud colors with out-of-this-world scenarios. He creates a fantasy-like parallel universe where he can let his imagination run wild and, at the same time, produce a safe space to talk about social justice and fundamental human rights. His works unite the representation of Black queer youth, friends of his, allegorical and mythological scenes, along with the importance of his self-portraits, which are a reflection of himself and his life story.

When you come across a work by Shimoyama, you recognize them immediately, which is a crucial goal in an artist’s career since it shows personality, character, and uniqueness. With the vibrant colors, glitter and sequins, highlighting some facial features, snakes, eyes, and flowers, the artist represents figures that exude courage, strength, and power. As a way of saying: this is us, we exist, and we are no longer going to stay silent and hidden.

In doing all of the above, he changes the way the story has been told; he gives Black men and women a leading role in the story. That’s why we see Stheno -Medusa’s older sister- in his work Sustheno (2022), depicted as a Black woman, surrounded by flowers with eyes and snakes on her head, or in The Abduction of Ganymede (2019), where he represents a young man, -himself?- Ganymede is abducted by Zeus, who has transformed into an eagle. Shimoyama plays with Surrealism and with our minds. When we think we see eyes, if we look closely enough, we’ll realize they are jewels instead like we see in Self Portrait as Patti (2022), diamonds instead of tears like in Happyness (2022), that being possible thanks to the use of mixed media, where he works with costume jewelry. An androgynous person putting lipstick on, as seen in Toto Getting Ready (2018), or a vampire sovereign in Akasha (2021).

Devan Shimoyama gifts his works with glamour, force, and sensuality and, simultaneously, pays tribute to the queer culture and his Black heritage.