Devan Shimoyama

Devan Shimoyama (b. 1989, Philadelphia, USA) is a visual artist whose work explores depictions of the black, queer, male body. Shimoyama sometimes employs a variety of other mediums, but the artist primarily focuses on painting, specifically the genre of portraiture. Although inspired by those of classical painters, such as Francisco Goya, or Caravaggio, his subjects are the politics of queer culture, and the ways in which those politics relate to black American culture, which are extremely contemporary. The human figures that can be perceived as “both desirable and desirous” are mystical and celebratory, but at the same time they often have vacant expression. These depictions interrupts the connection between their inner selves and the viewer, and suggesting a sort of silent suffering. Recent exhibitions include When We See Us, Zeitz Musuem of Contemporary Art Africa, Capetown and A Counterfeit Gift Wrapped in Fire, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, as well as exhibitions at Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City; kunstpalais Erlangen, Erlangen; and Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh.