Philadelphia Native Enjoys Regional Debut of SHIFT at Rowan University
Devan Shimoyama is a visual artist with a focus in painting and self-portraiture. A Philadelphia native, he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing/Painting from Penn State University and later his Master of Fine Arts from Yale University School of Art in Painting/Printmaking. While at Yale, he was awarded the Al Held Fellowship, eponymously named for the abstract artist, Al Held, who once said, “In my view, non-objective and abstract art have a special role in describing non-Newtonian reality - a reality in which our five senses are of little use.”
Held’s words echoed through my mind as I spoke with Shimoyama about his latest exhibition, SHIFT, now running at Rowan University Art Gallery & Museum. The work is clever, unique, and up for your interpretation. The artist’s intention is imbued in each brush stroke, each color choice, each aesthetic, but what will move you when you view it is specific to you.
As Shimoyama’s Artist Statement reads, “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.”
Fascinated by this subject matter, I pressed further about what these mentions of transformation and shapeshifting meant to him and where the inspiration for these pieces was born. He expounded gladly, “When I say transformation and shifting, I think a lot about shapeshifting and changing form. I think about myself as a queer-identifying person, and the different spaces in which I’ve encountered and seen these types of shifts occur, specifically in three very different spaces. A drag performer in a nightclub, a priest in a church, and the vampiresses of two blaxploitation films.”
Shimomaya’s explanation shifted something in me as well. I’d never considered what it means for a drag performer to choose the elements of their persona, knowing how those elements may then be perceived differently under stage lights, fog, and more. What may be a cheap prop looks expensive when shown under the right light. What may look flat in a dressing room will glitter on stage.
Beyond that, the artist explained how differently he viewed priests and their sacred garb after a residence in Italy. The churches were often lit with candles and/or soft, natural light. The priests in their frocks had begun to reflect that light and thereby look divine, as though they were radiating light in a holy space. “That can shift or transform our understanding of a person, their potency and power, but it can also help us feel something within ourselves and feel transcended from our own bodies into a more divine experience internally,” shared Shimoyama.
The last space is pop culture, cinema. Shimoyama looked towards the lead actresses of “Queen of the Damned (2002)” and “Vampira (1974)” wherein each had a metamorphosis or created a metamorphosis in another, as the undead are wont to do.
These spaces, which have either highlighted his queerdom or his otherness, serve as the impetus behind this latest exhibition. Having grown up in a Baptist Christian home, it became clear to him at a young age that he would relate to religion differently. As such, he began to question the history and evolution of religion over time. He noted that agricultural, geographic, and socioeconomic factors began to influence religious tenets, and recognizing that growth and change are not only allowed within religion but expected, he was able to embrace his own unique journey. He reminded me that this “shifting and transforming is a gradual and constant practice. Maintaining the openness to allow change to occur is pivotal.”
This journey of self opened inspiration to the Major Arcana of the Tarot, also known as The Fool’s Journey, a metaphor for our walk through life. “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.”
The ongoing exhibition, his premiere in the region, is featured at Rowan University Art Gallery & Museum, a space in which education is front and center. Shimoyama shared with me how exposure to working-artists early on in his studies impacted his perception of what could be possible for his own career. Two memories stood out for him: a chance meeting with artist Wangechi Mutu, and another with Beverly McIver.
“Wangechi Mutu is from Nairobi and has this incredibly vast and prolific career where she produces work in so many different mediums (performance, film, painting, collage, and sculpture). She became this ‘art star’ to me that I couldn’t believe I had the opportunity to meet. I got to get some feedback on the work that I was making at the time, and she gave me some really good technical advice.
“I also remember going to a talk by Beverly McIver. She would make these really intense self-portrait paintings of a dark period in her life. It was a deeply personal body of work that she was sharing and it was so impactful for me to see somebody working in that way. To be so vulnerable and expose a more difficult time in their life. Sharing that success story was really inspiring.”
The torch has been passed, and it is now Shimoyama’s turn to inspire students with his vulnerability and, of course, some of his technical advice. He was able to work with Rowan University painting students and guide them in creating works inspired by his practice. These pieces will also be available to visit, on display in the gallery’s Extension of the Classroom hallway.
“I really enjoy when my exhibitions can be somewhere that is a place of learning. It is always a really lovely opportunity to be able to engage with students in any capacity. I’m happy to be able to be a small part of their journey, with this exhibition at Rowan.”
SHIFT remains on display through March 21, 2026, at the Rowan University Art & Gallery Museum in Glassboro, NJ.
