Taboo!, View From My E. 5th St Studio 5th Floor Walkup (2021), via Karma
On view at Karma this month, the gallery presents Citysapes, a show organized in collaboration with Gordon Robichaux around the work of New York artist Taboo!. Spread across both galleries, the exhibition reflects on the artist’s ongoing landscape work, painting a range of cityscapes that document New York’s iconic skyline from a range of vantage points and perspectives. This joint exhibition presents the most comprehensive survey to date of Tabboo!’s cityscape paintings from the last three decades.
Tabbo!, Cityscapes (Installation View), via Karma
Tabboo!, born Stephen Tashjian, is a multidisciplinary performer, designer, and artist with a fascination for celebrity, cityscapes, and the aesthetics of the everyday, a longtime fixture in New York’s Queer underground, and a linchpin of the city’s famed drag culture. This ongoing participation in the city’s live performance scene has also informed a body of painting, a longtime part of his practice that has dovetailed with his performances. The works on view here recall his early cityscapes and images rendered for performances during the 1980’s, yet here, in their small-scale and meditative, introspective capacity as canvases rather than immense backdrops, his work takes on a new aspect, a quiet, poetic love letter to the city at large.
Tabbo!, Cityscapes (Installation View), via Karma
Taboo!, Big Pink and Purple Cityscape (2021), via Karma
These sweeping cityscapes are reminiscent of the backdrops Tabboo! painted for his drag performances in the 1980s. Dramatic washes of color render the city in moments of transition, from day into night and back again. In these works, Tabboo!’s beloved stomping ground of New York City takes center stage, giving the viewer a colorful and playful look at the city from a range of perspectives. The East River swirls beneath the viewer in some works, while others document the iconic, glowing expanses of midtown. Consistent throughout is a sense of the city in its ability to inspire and to refresh the viewer. This same sensibility is in full view in the artist’s paintings.
The show closes April 16th.
– C. Rhinehardt
Read more:
Taboo! [Exhibition Site]
