Kavi Gupta Gallery
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Artists
  • Exhibitions
  • News
  • Viewing Room
  • Editions
  • Events & Art Fairs
  • Public Works
  • Podcast
  • Information
  • Mission
Menu

Devan Shimoyama, The Barbershop Project: Mighty Mighty: THEARC | Washington, DC

Past exhibition
4 May - 24 August 2019
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Devan Shimoyama, Gabi, 2019
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Devan Shimoyama, Gabi, 2019

Devan Shimoyama USA, b. 1989

Gabi, 2019
Oil, acrylic, color pencil, collage, sequins, glitter and jewelry on canvas stretched over panel
48 x 36 in
121.9 x 91.4 cm
7160

Further images

  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 1 ) Devan Shimoyama, Mighty Mighty Style Guide (Ladies), 2019
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 2 ) Devan Shimoyama, Mighty Mighty Style Guide (Ladies), 2019
View on a Wall
This work debuted as part of Devan Shimoyama's innovative and engaging Barbershop Project, which opened on May 4th, 2019 in Washington, DC. Reporting for DC’s local CBS affiliate, Michael Quander...
Read more
This work debuted as part of Devan Shimoyama's innovative and engaging Barbershop Project, which opened on May 4th, 2019 in Washington, DC.

Reporting for DC’s local CBS affiliate, Michael Quander wrote, “Inside of a big, blue shipping container on Mississippi Avenue in Southeast D.C., you’ll find a fully-functioning barbershop adorned with rhinestones, silk flowers, and paintings to make you think.”

Lori McCue, reporting for dcist, added, “There’s black and white tile on the floors and swiveling barber chairs, sure, but there’s also groovy rhinestone-studded custom-made furniture from D.C.-based designer Caleb Woodard,and citrus-colored flowers lining the mirrors. Shimoyama’s own psychedelic collage-painting hybrid works, which depict figures getting haircuts, line the walls. It looks something like a salon in a Tim Burton movie set in the future.”

Reporting for Washington’s Top News (WTOP), Madeleine Simon said, “There’s no shortage of art museums in D.C., but a new exhibit is offering visitors something most galleries won’t have: free haircuts. The Barbershop Project is the latest installation inside the Mobile Art Gallery, the shipping container-turned-gallery in Southeast, D.C., run by the non-profit CulturalDC. The project is a celebration of the art of hair and barbershop culture, and is designed to be inclusive to everyone — particularly for those in the LGBTQ community.”

Artist Background:
Devan Shimoyama (b. 1989, US) is a visual artist whose work explores depictions of the black, queer, male body. Through the medias of painting, sculpture, printmaking and installation, he creates compositions inspired by classical painters such as Francisco Goya, or Caravaggio. However, Shimoyama's use of materials is distinctly contemporary, as is the subject matter he depicts. He has stated that he wants the figures in his work to be perceived as “both desirable and desirous.” He is aware of the politics of queer culture, and the ways in which those politics relate to black American culture. These elements come together in his works in a way that is both celebratory and complicated.

The celebratory aspects come through in his choice of materials, such as fur, feathers, glitter and costume jewels like rhinestones, and sequins. These materials endow the figures in the works with a sort of magical aura and joyful spirit. Yet, many of the men in Shimoyama’s works also literally have jewels in their eyes, giving them a mystified expression, interrupting the connection between their inner selves and the viewer, and suggesting a sort of silent suffering. Many also shed tears.
Close full details

Exhibitions

Devan Shimoyama, The Barbershop Project, 2019, Washington, DC, USA
Share
  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
Previous
|
Next
2 
of  5
Back to exhibitions

Contact: +1  708-480-2882

General Inquiries: info@kavigupta.com

Media Inquiries: media@kavigupta.com

Client & Sales Inquiries: client@kavigupta.com

Publications: Kavi Gupta Editions

Facebook Twitter Instagram Newsletter

Kavi Gupta Washington Blvd

835 W. Washington Blvd. Chicago, IL 60607

Hours | Tue–Fri: 11 am–6 pm, Sat: 12 pm–5 pm

Kavi Gupta Elizabeth St

219 N. Elizabeth St. Chicago, IL 60607 
Hours | By appointment only

 

 

Kavi Gupta Warehouse

2108 S. California Ave. Chicago, IL 60608

Kavi Gupta New Buffalo

215 E. Buffalo St. #219 New Buffalo, MI 49117

Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Artsy, opens in a new tab.
Join the mailing list
View on Google Maps
Ocula, opens in a new tab.
Manage cookies
2025 Kavi Gupta
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences