Shimoyama started at Penn State with a focus on life sciences, with a trajectory toward pre-med, but he eventually changed to art. Before getting to the university, he hadn’t considered art as a career path. Growing up, there weren’t any examples of full-time professional artists in his life, so it didn’t seem possible.
“I wasn’t in New York, seeing art galleries and contemporary artists working in that capacity very much, so I really hadn’t had the vision for it before I got to school,” he said.
Artist and Philadelphia native Devan Shimoyama. (Credit: Zachary Riggleman)
After changing his major, he began to see other Black artists in the profession. Artists like Wangechi Mutu and Mikalene Thomas inspired Shimoyama to explore different modes of artistic expression.
He graduated from Penn State in 2011 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drawing and painting and from Yale University School of Art in 2014 with a Master of Fine Arts in painting and printmaking. Shimoyama’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States.