DEVAN SHIMOYAMA is a Philadelphia-based painter. He received his BFA from The Pennsylvania State University in Drawing /Painting and his MFA from Yale University School of Art in Painting/Printmaking. His work has been shown in various galleries in Brooklyn, NY, Stamford, CT and New Haven, CT. His work reimagines black queer masculinity as both desirous and desirable through the use of narrative and self-portraiture. Through the act of painting, he explores the relationship between celebration and silence in queer culture and sexuality. In his artist statement, he writes “The figures in my work find themselves echoed throughout the paintings, attempting to connect, but failing to join and fulfill their sensual desires. Tender moments of touch are often displayed and echoed within these dreamscapes and skewed spatial perspectives and oddly vacant domestic rooms. From the tactility of the thickly poured and splattered paint, to the effervescent and luminously sprayed stencils, I create silhouettes of figures bursting with divine ecstasy. They are wholly magical and universally human.” To find more of Devan Shimoyama’s work, you can view his website: www.devanshimoyama.com