Tabboo!
Tabboo! (Stephen Tashjian, b. 1959, Leicester, Massachusetts) renders his subjects in a direct, intuitive style that he terms “emotional realism,” suspending figurative elements against dreamlike colorfields. Working primarily in acrylic, the artist often draws subjects from his surroundings, depicting cityscapes, friends, or flora and fauna in imaginative still lifes or tableaux. He also paints large, panoramic works and site-specific murals. These immersive settings recall the painted backdrops he made for performances in the 1980s and 1990s. While performing regularly himself, Tabboo! also designed numerous event fliers, posters, and album covers featuring his signature curvilinear text, which still appears in his work. Tabboo! lives in New York.
Recent solo exhibitions include Karma, Los Angeles (2023) and New York (2022, 2020); Gordon Robichaux, New York (2022, 2020, 2019, 2017); and Howl! Happening, New York (2016). His work is held in the collections of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Portland Museum of Art, Maine; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Born 1959, Worcester, Massachusetts
Lives and works in New York
EDUCATION
1981
BFA, Massachusetts College of Art
Selected Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions
2023
Karma, Los Angeles, Nothing but blue skies from now on
2022
Karma and Gordon Robichaux, New York, Cityscapes
2020
Karma and Gordon Robichaux, New York, Tabboo! 1983-1988
2019
Gordon Robichaux, New York, Garden, Elisabeth Kley & Tabboo!
2017
Gordon Robichaux, New York, World of Tabboo! Early and Recent Work
2016
Howl! Happening, New York, TABBOO! New Paintings
2008
Participant Inc., New York, The Nightingale
2006
Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
1999
Rupert Goldsworthy Gallery, New York
1998
Wooster Gardens, New York, Tabboo! Paintings
1995
Tricia Collins Grand Salon, New York, Tabboo!
Rupert Goldsworthy Gallery, Berlin, Berlin Welcomes Tabboo!
Allez les Filles, Columbus, Ohio, A Kiss of Spring in the Dead of Winter
1994
Tom Cugliani Gallery, New York, Tabboo!
Papi Luis Cafe, New York, Small Spring Paintings on Paper
1991
Big Drop, New York, Paintings by Tabboo!
1987
Valorie Furlano Gallery, Providence, Rhode Island
1986
Limbo Gallery, New York, The Glitter Paintings
1982
ABC No Rio, New York
Lucky Strike Gallery, New York
1981
11th Hour Gallery, Boston
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Shifting Landscapes
70 Main Street, Thomaston, Maine, A Particular Kind of Heaven
Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, Texas, Who’s Afraid of Cartoony Figuration?, curated by Alison M. Gingeras
2023
Brooklyn Museum, New York, Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines
MassArt Art Museum, Boston, Massachusetts, The Myth of Normal: A Celebration of Authentic Expression
Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum, Long Beach, California, Drag Show
Parker Gallery, Los Angeles, Wishing Well
Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles, Make Me Feel Mighty Real: Drag/Tech and the Queer Avatar
2022-23
UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China, Somewhere Downtown
2022
Berkshire Botanical Garden, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Symbiosis, curated by Beth Rudin DeWoody
Derosia, New York, The Practice of Everyday Life
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, DONALD MOFFETT + NATURE CULT + THE McNAY
2021
Karma, New York, Get Lifted!, organized by Hilton Als
Anton Kern Gallery, New York, 11
Massimo de Carlo, VSpace, Some Art That Got Me Through 2020, curated by Rob Pruitt
2020
Karma, New York, (Nothing but) Flowers
Jewish Museum, New York, We Fight to Build a Free World: An Exhibition by Jonathan Horowitz
Artist Curated Projects, Los Angeles, By Appointment
Provincetown Arts Society, Massachusetts, Intimate Companions, organized by Joe Sheftel
Parker Gallery, Los Angeles, A Page From My Intimate Journal, Part II–
Tom of Finland Foundation, Los Angeles, Heaven and Hell, organized by Seth Bogart and Jess Scott
2019
Grey Art Gallery, New York University; Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum, Miami, Florida;
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, Art after Stonewall, 1969-1989
The Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Georgia, The Artist as Muse; Self-Portraiture in Contemporary Art
Western Exhibitions, Chicago, Pure ‘Joy’, organized by INVISIBLE EXPORTS
Herald St., London, Condo London
Johannes Vogt, New York, Summer of ’82, organized by Dan Cameron
2018
Participant Inc., New York, Breaking Wave
Alberta Merola Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, HEADTOHEAD
2017
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Club 57: Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978-1983
White Columns, New York, White Columns Benefit Auction
Gavlak Gallery, Los Angeles, Flaming June VII (Flaming Creatures)
Collette, Paris, Candy Magazine at Colette, organized by Luis Venegas
2015
Shoot the Lobster, New York, Charmed
University Galleries, University of Nevada, Reno, Tomorrow’s Man, organized by Jack Pierson
Launch F18, New York, Inside the Episodee, organized by Jack Pierson
Howl! Happening, New York, Secrets of the Great Pyramid
2014
Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, A Drawing Show
2010
Vox Populi Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dead Flowers
Albert Merola Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, Night
2009
Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, Familiar Feelings. On the Boston Group
Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, Out of Order, organized by Scott Hug
2007
JGM Galerie, Paris, French Kiss, organized by Rob Wynne
2006
Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, the Name of This Show Is Not: Gay Art Now, organized by Jack Pierson
2004
The Migros Museum für Gegenwartskuns, Zurich, The Future Has a Silver Lining. Genealogies of Glamour
New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, East Village USA
2003
Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York, Surreal Estate, organized by Jonathan Horowitz and Rob Pruitt
1996
Allez les Filles, Columbus, Ohio, Summer 1996
1995
Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Boston, The Boston School, organized by Lia Gangitano
UFO Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, Flowers
1994
Four Walls, Brooklyn, That Obscure Object of Desire, organized by Dan Cameron and Marilla Palmer
Leslie Lohman, New York, Diamonds, Gold, Myrhh
P.S.122 Gallery, New York, Fierce N.Y.
White Columns, New York, White Columns Benefit Auction
Marshall Arts Studios, Memphis, Tennessee, Fierce N.Y.
L’école des Beaux-Arts, Lorient, Brittany, France, Le Temps D’un Dessin
24 Hours for Life Gallery, Pride in Our Diversity, organized by Ronny Cohen, New York
450 Broadway Gallery, New York, Open Book, organized by Larry Krone
1993
Tom Cugliani Gallery, New York, Saint in the City, organized by Jack Pierson
Tom Cugliani Gallery, New York, Daniel Ibanez, Dan McCarthy, Stephen Tashjian
Leslie Lohman Gallery, New York
Barbara Braathen Gallery, New York, Urban Analysis, organized by Maynard Monrow
Tom Cugliani Gallery, New York, Summer Drawing Show
1992
Tom Cugliani Gallery, New York, Some People, organized by Jack Pierson
1991
The New Museum, New York, with Gran Fury and Annie Sprinkle
St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY, From Desire…A Queer Diary, organized by Nan Goldin
PS122 Gallery, New York
1989
Artists Space, New York, Witness: Against our Vanishing, organized by Nan Goldin
The New Leonard Beach Hotel, Miami, Interpretations
1988
598 Broadway Gallery, New York, Pure Joy, organized by Hebe Joy
1987
ASYLUM, New York, A Slice of Life
1986
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana, Painting and Sculpture Today
Limbo gallery, New York, Art as Theater… …Theater as Art, Act I
1985
Pat Hearn Gallery, New York
Limbo Gallery, New York, Theatre as Art
1984
ABC No Rio, New York, the edge
1983
Piezo Electric, New York, 29 Artists from The Lower East Side
1981
Artists Space, New York, Witness: Against our Vanishing, organized by Nan Goldin
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Museum of Modern Art, New York City
Portland Museum of Art, Maine
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
PUBLICATIONS
2022
Cityscapes
Texts by Ksenia M. Soboleva, Jonathan D. Katz, and Eileen Myles
Gordon Robichaux/Karma, New York, 2022
264 pages, hardcover
11 1⁄4 × 10 1⁄2 inches
2021
Tabboo! 1982-88
Text by Jarrett Earnest
Gordon Robichaux/Karma Books, New York
140 pages, hardcover
11 1⁄4 × 10 1⁄2 inches