Devan Shimoyama’s exhibition, All the Rage, will open at Kunstpalais, in Erlangen, Germany on June 19, 2021. The exhibition’s title, taken from the idiom meaning the current or latest fashion, implies a sense of ephemerality that inspired the artist as he considered how people construct their personal identities. The work references imagery and cultural symbols including astrological signs and natal charts, ancient pagan practices, Orisha gods and related spiritualities and mythologies, tarot readings, and even pop culture from decades past, reexamined through the lens of Shimoyama’s own process.
“All this is through the lens of my own experience and I look at things I’ve gravitated towards when trying to understand my own affinities, interests, how I present myself, where I’ve felt most understood, etc.,” explains Shimoyama. “And also how other Black American identifying people in my own network of peers and friends have developed similar modes of thinking about themselves. Many of these things would have been considered “heresy” in the past, yet there is something attractive as of late about these kinds of magic and beliefs that has become a way for so many to connect to each other as well as find deeper understanding of themselves.”
All the Rage is on view June 19 – November 14, 2021 at Kunstpalais, Erlangen. This exhibition will be Shimoyama’s first solo museum exhibition in Europe.
