De Buck Gallery is pleased to announce its participation in The Armory Show 2023 where it will present a new installation by artist Devan Shimoyama in the fair’s Platform section. Read the full list of Armory Show exhibitors HERE.
The Tower, a 14-foot high foam brick piece, will do just as its name entails– tower over the 2023 Armory Show. Inspired by the 16th card of the traditional tarot deck, The Tower is a chimney-type structure embellished in Devan Shimoyama’s signature fashion of glitter that contrast dark gray bricks, which make up the bulk of the piece.
The Tower is the first sculpture in the artist’s latest emergent “Tarot Series’ ‘, a collection of works that takes each of the 22 major arcana from the Marseilles and Rider-Waite Decks and reexamines them through the artist’s own story and process. Within this body of work, Shimoyama references cultural symbols including astrological signs and various spiritualities and mythologies. The collection, as a whole, represents transformation within the artist’s life– which he alludes to through self-portraiture and hidden childhood figures in the works.
The Tower, as with many of the major arcana, is representative of growth and transfiguration as part of a “journey” for the querent. The traditional Rider-Waite card, which was designed by Bohemian artist Pamela Coleman Smith, depicts a lightning bolt striking a tower, which is crumbling and collapsing. This card is often associated with sudden change, chaos, and destruction. However, it can also represent liberation, transformation, and enlightenment. The card often implies a change or major upheaval in one’s life and serves as a reminder that although these events can be painful, they can also be an opportunity for growth.
Devan Shimoyama (b.1989) 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. Using a variety of materials and methods, Shimoyama showcases the relationship between celebration and silence in queer culture and sexuality. His compositions are inspired by the work of classical painters such as Caravaggio and Goya, while adding more contemporary expression and sensuality. With the use of a variety of lustrous materials such as jewels, black glitter, rhinestones, and sequins, Shimoyama creates works that capture the beauty and alienation of the Black queer body.
Most recently, the artist has created a series based on the major arcana of the Tarot deck. Each work in the Tarot series presents an episode of transformation and alludes to the dialogue between true and superficial change, whether at the individual or societal level. These works in particular target the human desire to present ourselves outwardly as contained and perfect, while revealing how mysticisms such as card reading can help us adapt to tumultuous times.
Shimoyama was born in 1989 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and 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. While there, in 2013, he was awarded the Al Held Fellowship.
Shimoyama’s exhibition Cry Baby, 2018, at The Andy Warhol Museum was the first solo museum exhibition for the artist, and featured a special gallery that staged his work alongside portraits of drag queens from Andy Warhol’s Ladies and Gentleman series, helping the overlooked subjects of Warhol’s portraits to reclaim agency and visibility. In 2021, Shimoyama’s installation, The Grove, was commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution for Futures, an exhibition celebrating the institution’s 175th anniversary.
Further recent major exhibitions of Shimoyama’s work include Untitled (For Tamir), a single work exhibition in 2023 at The Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY, USA; an exhibition in 2022 at the Akron Art Museum associated with the FRONT Triennial; Black Gentleman and Midnight Rumination, an exhibition at The Regional, co-organized by the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO, USA; Elegies: Still Lifes in Contemporary Art, a group exhibition at the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA; Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY, USA; All The Rage, Kunstpalais, Erlangen, Germany; Tell Me Your Story, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, Netherlands; Getting to Know You, Cleveland Institute of Art, OH, USA; Fictions, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, USA; and Translating Valence: Redefining Black Male Identity, Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, MI, USA.
Shimoyama’s work is held in private and public collections nationwide. In 2022, the artist’s work was added to the collections of The Rockwell Museum and the Brooklyn Museum. In 2021, his work was included in the Scantland Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art, a collection of some of the most dynamic and thought-provoking artists working today.
The 2023 Armory Show will be held September 8–10 and will return for its third year at the Javits Center in New York, New York. The Platform section will be curated by Eva Respini, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs, and Barbara Lee, Chief Curator at the ICA/Boston. The show will feature stands from more than 225 galleries with only 9 galleries hosting large-scale installations.
