This painting by Devan Shimoyama is the title work from the artist's 2022 solo exhibition A Counterfeit Gift Wrapped in Fire. It portrays three sets of eyes erupting with fireworks and tears. The eyes in the painting belong to Aaliyah, the famed singer who died tragically in a plane crash at age 22.

“For me it’s thinking of this conflict between something celebratory, but also deeply sad or frustrated,” says Shimoyama. “A rupture is a way to conflate these emotions.”

By spotlighting a public display of excitement that’s actually masking something morose, this painting highlights the central question Shimoyama addresses in all of the works in A Counterfeit Gift Wrapped in Fire, which has to do with the difference between superficial and true change—a discrepancy noticeable, for example, when we perform social niceties for each other rather than admit the truth about how we are doing.

“We have this desire to present outwardly as contained and keeping it together,” Shimoyama says. “We think it’s a gift to say, ‘I’m fine.’ There’s a mimicry of something really desired, but it’s fake. There’s a danger to that kind of thing.”