CHRIS TANNER
East Village-based artist Christopher Tanner says he has always been enchanted by fairy tales, particularly the Wizard of Oz, which he connects with his memory of seeing Judy Garland drunk on TV in a sequined dress. “I was fascinated by the juxtaposition of that image with the magic of Dorothy – the sparkle and the darkness.”

Coating surfaces in glitter, faux jewels, large paillette sequins and other shimmering media, Tanner creates exuberant paintings and drawings with these flashy, trashy materials. His work speaks an unabashedly gay patois. At odds with much work referring to the AIDS epidemic, an issue close to Tanner, these paintings refuse to reside in mourning and outrage, but put forth a heady optimism – the sparkle amidst the darkness.

For Tanner, whose work comes out of a background in theater – acting, singing, set design – the exuberant gestures embodied in his abstract paintings are indelibly linked to performance.

 As a performance artist, Christopher Tanner has worked with Cyndi Lauper, Penny Arcade, Bloolips, Mabou Mines, The Wooster Group, David Lynch and Karen Finley.

His artwork has been exhibited at La MaMa, E.T.C. Galleria and The Kitchen in New York , Gallery OZ in Paris , and Flatland Gallery in Utrecht , Holland . He is represented by Pavel Zoubok Gallery in New York .

In addition to the exhibit, BMoCA will be presenting a performance by Tanner, Ravaged by Romance, a multimedia musical drag extravaganza, created by and starring Tanner and Brandon Olson, acclaimed and unusual performers from New York 's East Village . In Ravaged by Romance , a writer dying of AIDS struggles to stay alive through the creation of imaginary worlds. The phantoms of his mind – including Victorian chess-playing princesses, horny mice, and Baby Jane Hudson – assist him on his journey to the other side, but not without plenty of drug-induced orgies and tap dance numbers! A version of Ravaged by Romance originally debuted last fall at La MaMa in New York City . The BMoCA performance features two new vignettes, in addition to the original performance work. Accompanying Tanner and Olson on the Theremin will be renowned Iranian-Armenian performance artist Armen Ra.

 BMoCA audiences will recognize Tanner from his turn as the “singing Liza” from BMoCA's fall 2003 production of Karen Finley's Make Love. Ravaged by Romance will open following the fall exhibit opening at 9pm on Friday, September 10.

“While pushing his tawdry materials to increasingly expressive extremes, Tanner consciously courts the degraded category of decoration, and wears that affiliation like an extravagant badge of honor.” Matthew Guy Nichols, Art in America .