Stephen Tashjian (born 1959) is an American artist. His

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part o ...

character Tabboo! became known in the East Village underground scene of New York City in the 1980s. He is also a puppeteer, painter, and singer.

Biography

Stephen Tashjian was born in 1959 and raised in the central Massachusetts town of Leicester. He is from an

Armenian American Armenian Americans ( hy, ամերիկահայեր, ''amerikahayer'') are citizens or residents of the United States who have total or partial Armenian ancestry. They form the second largest community of the Armenian diaspora after Armenians i ...

family. Tashjian attended the

Massachusetts College of Art Massachusetts College of Art and Design, branded as MassArt, is a public college of visual and applied art in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1873, it is one of the nation’s oldest art schools, the only publicly funded independent art school ...

in Boston where he became friends with fellow students

Nan Goldin Nancy Goldin (born September 12, 1953) is an American photographer and activist. Her work often explores LGBT subcultures, moments of intimacy, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and the opioid epidemic. Her most notable work is '' The Ballad of Sexual Depend ...

and

Jack Pierson Jack Pierson (born 1960 in Plymouth, Massachusetts) is a photographer and an artist. Pierson is known for his photographs, collages, word sculptures, installations, drawings and artists books. His "Self-Portrait" series was shown in the 2004 Whi ...

. He moved to New York's East Village in 1982 to pursue a career as an artist, and became a regular performer at the Pyramid Club, appearing next to other drag legends like

Rupaul RuPaul Andre Charles (born November 17, 1960; stylized as RuPaul) is an American drag queen, television personality, actor, musician, and model. Best known for producing, hosting, and judging the reality competition series '' RuPaul's Drag Race ...

and

Lady Bunny Lady Bunny, originally known as "Bunny Hickory Dickory Dock" (born Jon Ingle, August 13, 1962), is an American drag queen, nightclub DJ, actor, comedian, and event organizer. She is the founder of the annual Wigstock event, as well as an occasi ...

. Tashjian also performed several times at the annual

Wigstock Wigstock was an annual outdoor Drag (clothing), drag festival that began in 1984 in Manhattan's East Village, Manhattan, East Village that took place on Labor Day. Continuing, with a few gaps, until 2005, the festival would traditionally act as t ...

drag event, and appeared in ''

Wigstock, The Movie ''Wigstock: The Movie'' is a 1995 documentary film focusing on Wigstock, the annual drag music festival that had been held New York City's East Village through the 1980s and 1990s. The film presents a number of performances from the 1994 festival, ...

'', released in 1995. Tashjian has painted murals on city buildings and exhibited his paintings in many galleries internationally. Under the name Tabboo!, he designed flyers, record album covers and advertising for underground venues. One of his better known artworks is his graphic design for the album cover of

Deee-Lite Deee-Lite was an American house and dance music group formed in New York City. The group's best-known single is " Groove Is in the Heart", which was released in 1990 from their debut studio album ''World Clique'' (1990), and was a top-ten hit ...

's ''

World Clique ''World Clique'' is the debut album by American dance music band Deee-Lite, which was released in 1990. The album's first single, " Groove Is in the Heart", was a top-five success on both the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart as we ...

''. The curly lettering on the album cover became an iconic image for the band and the rave culture of the early 1990s. The photographer

included photographs of Tabboo! in her books, and he is featured on the cover of her book ''The Other Side'' in drag. Tashjian continues to perform in New York and shows his paintings in art shows, most notably a 2006 group show curated by

at Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York, featuring dozens of camp art pieces from his private collection. The show featured works by

Matthew Barney Matthew Barney (born March 25, 1967) is an American contemporary artist and film director who works in the fields of sculpture, film, photography and drawing. His works explore connections among geography, biology, geology and mythology as well ...

David Armstrong David or Dave Armstrong may refer to: Politicians *David H. Armstrong (1812–1893), US Senator from Missouri * David L. Armstrong (1941–2017), American lawyer and politician * David Malet Armstrong (1926–2014), Australian philosopher * David ...

, and

Mark Morrisroe Mark Morrisroe (January 10, 1959 – July 24, 1989) was an American performance artist and photographer. He is known for his performances and photographs, which were germane in the development of the punk scene in Boston in the 1970s and the art ...

. Tashjian's work has also been documented in the

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sch ...

's "East Village Show", and

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

(NYU)/

Grey Art Gallery The Grey Art Gallery is New York University’s fine art museum, located on historic Washington Square Park, in New York City's Greenwich Village. As a university art museum, the Grey Art Gallery functions to collect, preserve, study, document, in ...

's "Downtown Show."

References

External links

Stephen Tashjian, ''The Name of This Show is Not Gay Art''

Paul Kasmin Gallery The Kasmin Gallery, formerly known as the Paul Kasmin Gallery, is a New York City fine art gallery, founded in SoHo in 1989. History The gallery was founded by its namesake as the Paul Kasmin Gallery in 1989 and was initially housed at 74 Grand S ...

, Summer 2006 Living people 1959 births Massachusetts College of Art and Design alumni American drag queens American puppeteers 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists American people of Armenian descent People from Leicester, Massachusetts People from the East Village, Manhattan 20th-century American male artists {{US-artist-stub