Bobby Abate

Born

1973-04-09

Birthplace

Connecticut, USA

Biography

BOBBY ABATE (Brooklyn, NY) is a Queer artist, filmmaker, and editor whose work has been showcased at the Museum of Modern Art’s MediaScope series, the New York Film Festival, the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the San Francisco Cinematheque, and International Objects in NYC. Their Queer Objects series won third place at the 2024 Annual Works on Paper show, juried by Whitney Museum Chief Curator Kim Conaty, who praised the “playfulness in the selection of objects that were meaningful to the artist and in the way Abate captured their spirit.” Bobby’s residencies include the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Art Space on Governors Island (2023), the Constance Saltonstall Foundation in Ithaca, NY (2024), and the VCCA in Amherst, VA (2024) and. They are the 2024 recipient of the Princess Grace Special Projects Grant, the Leighton International Artist Exchange Program grant for a residency at Zaratan Art Center in Lisbon (2025). Bobby holds an MFA from Bard College. As an editor, Bobby contributed to seasons 3 and 4 of the Queer docuseries We’re Here on HBO, which received Peabody and Television Academy awards. Additionally, they create animations for renowned drag performer Sasha Velour. In 2021, Bobby self-published The Outsider Tarot, featuring 80 original artworks that reimagine the traditional Tarot in a modern, Queer context. This deck, along with its 200-page guidebook, was presented at the Whitney Museum, Participant INC., and Miami MoCA. It was sold at Artbook at PS1 MoMA and is now part of the permanent collections at Harvard University’s Fine Arts Library and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA. Bobby recently completed filming The Ghost at Skeleton Rock, a short film they wrote and directed, based on their coming-out story in 1992 during the height of the AIDS crisis.