Tabboo! (Stephen Tashjian, b. 1959, Worcester, 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 that recall the painted backdrops he made for performances in the 1980s and ’90s. While performing regularly himself, Tabboo! also designed numerous event fliers, posters, and album covers featuring his signature curvilinear text. Tabboo! lives in New York.

Pamela Sneed is a New York based poet, performer and visual artist. She is the author of Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom Than Slavery, Funeral Diva, which was featured in the New York Times and won the 2021 Lambda Lesbian Poetry Award, and other books. She is a 2023 Creative Capital awardee in literature and has also won the Black Queer Art Mentorship Award and a BOFFO Residency. Sneed has published in The Paris Review, Frieze, and others publications. She is a professor at SAIC, where she has been a guest artist for several years, and she teaches across disciplines in Columbia University’s MFA program. Her performance, A Tribute to Big Mama Thornton, was at Joe’s Pub March 1 & 2, 2024.