Self Portrait as Aaliyah is a painting by Devan Shimoyama in which Shimoyama portrays himself in drag as R&B, pop and hip hop icon Aaliyah, who famously signed her first record deal age 12, had sold more than 10 million albums worldwide by age 17, and then tragically died in a plane crash at age 22. In his self portrait, Shimoyama dons the long, straight black hairstyle parted on the right that Aaliyah wore on her second album, One in a Million.

This painting is part of a series of self portraits in drag that Shimoyama painted for his solo exhibition A Counterfeit Gift Wrapped in Fire. Each work in the series portrays the artist donning the hairstyle of a beloved musician who influenced his own personal and professional evolution. In addition to Aaliyah, the series also pays homage to Coi Leray, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, Ronnie Spector, and Patti LaBelle.

The thematic framework of A Counterfeit Gift Wrapped in Fire had to do with transformation, and the difference between superficial and real change. In addition to paintings of himself in drag, the exhibition featured a series of paintings based on tarot cards and a series grounded in the transformation sequences from comics genres such as manga, among other works.

“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.”