The painting Sustheno debuted in A Counterfeit Gift Wrapped in Fire, Devan Shimoyama's second solo exhibition at Kavi Gupta gallery in Chicago. The painting portrays the downtrodden face of an exasperated, snake-haired being. The title references Stheno, the oldest sister of Euryale and Medusa, the mythological Gorgons. Stheno, whose name means “forceful one,” was the most ferocious Gorgon, taking the lives of more men than both of her sisters combined. Brutally rendered by Shimoyama, this figure’s sad, bejeweled eyes personify the melancholy of excellence and the burden of immortality.

The paintings and sculptures in A Counterfeit Gift Wrapped in Fire examine cultural representations related to transformation. The result of a long period of self-reflection for Shimoyama, the work materially alludes to an internal dialog he has been wrangling with concerning the difference between superficial and true change—a discrepancy noticeable at all levels, from the societal, to individual interactions in which we perform social niceties for each other rather than admit the truth about how we are doing.

Many works in A Counterfeit Gift Wrapped in Fire contain visual references to tarot cards, which for Shimoyama relate to how mysticisms can help people adapt to difficult or tumultuous times.