Alex Tatarsky

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Alex Tatarsky
Tatarsky-2019.png
Born1989 (age 36–37)
New York, New York
Education Reed College (BA)
New York University (MA)
Pig Iron School
OccupationPerformance artist
Known for Performance art
Website https://tatarsky.biz/

Alex Tatarsky is an American performance artist based in New York and Philadelphia. Their work draws from traditions including vaudeville and is most often presented in the personage of a bouffon.

Contents

They were included in the 2024 Whitney Biennial, where they presented the commissioned MATERIAL, which "considered both the physical substances that comprise and object and the information that becomes a performance." [1]

Tatarsky has performed original solo pieces at venues including La Mama, Playwright Horizons, Abrons Arts Center, The Kitchen, and MoMA PS1.

In 2013, they appeared at the Andy Kaufman Awards, presenting themself as the daughter of Andy Kaufman, and announcing that Andy was still alive. Media eventually revealed this to be a hoax earlier arranged along with Michael Kaufman - Andy's actual son, and host of the Awards. [2]

Their 2023 show Sad Boys in Harpy Land, in which Tatarsky "inhabits a graduate seminar's worth of German literary characters like kindergarten drag... so frequently disrupt[ing] their own act with reflexive interrogation that the interruptions become the point", was presented at Playwright Horizons. [3] [4]

Works

Collaborations

Tatarsky is co-creator (along with Ming Lin) of the collective Canal Street Research Association [9] and the collaborative project Shanzhai Lyric [10] , which "takes inspiration from the experimental English of shanzhai t-shirts made in China and proliferating across the globe to examine how the language of counterfeit uses mimicry, hybridity, and permutation to both revel in and reveal the artifice of global hierarchies" [11] .

Awards & Recognition

References

  1. ↑ "Material". whitney.org. Retrieved January 10, 2026.
  2. ↑ Duboff, Josh (November 15, 2013). "Andy Kaufman's "Daughter" is Actually Just A New York Actress". Vanity Fair. Retrieved January 10, 2026.
  3. ↑ "Spells are called spells for a reason alex tatarsky and sad boys in harpy land". walkerart.org. Retrieved January 10, 2026.
  4. ↑ Kumar, Naveen (November 21, 2023). "Full Exposure? Four Solo Shows Ponder the Art of True Nature". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 1, 2024. Retrieved January 10, 2026.
  5. ↑ "Material". whitney.org. Retrieved January 10, 2026.
  6. ↑ "Sad Boys in Harpy Land". www.playwrightshorizons.org. Retrieved January 10, 2026.
  7. ↑ "Alex Tatarsky". The Kitchen OnScreen. Retrieved January 10, 2026.
  8. ↑ Searles, Raina (August 26, 2017). "Alex Tatarsky's Americana Psychobabble: The First in a Tryptich on America's Political Tragicomedy". FringeArts. Retrieved January 10, 2026.
  9. ↑ "PIN–UP | THE CANAL STREET RESEARCH ASSOCIATION". PIN–UP | THE CANAL STREET RESEARCH ASSOCIATION. Retrieved January 10, 2026.
  10. ↑ Jeffers, Juliette (December 11, 2024). "Meet Shanzhai Lyric, the Art Collective Celebrating New York City's Digestive Tract". Interview Magazine. Retrieved January 10, 2026.
  11. ↑ "Information — Shanzhai Lyric". shanzhailyric.info. Retrieved January 10, 2026.
  12. ↑ "Alexandra Tatarsky | The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage". www.pewcenterarts.org. Retrieved January 10, 2026.
  13. ↑ "Alex Tatarsky Wins the 2024 Mark O'Donnell Prize". Playbill. Archived from the original on October 14, 2025. Retrieved January 10, 2026.
  14. ↑ "Alex Tatarsky | FCA Grant Recipient". www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org. Retrieved January 10, 2026.
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