Since the late 2000’s, Gio Black Peter has made a name for himself as an underground performance artist, actor, and painter. At the core of his thinking is the idea that the life of art depends on the viewer’s willingness to suspend his or her rational thoughts and play into the believability of lies and realistic falsehoods. While undeniably modern in his approach—often utilizing technology to offer a multimedia-fueled commentary on current issues—the artistic results are irrevocably rooted to the past. In his bold use of color and shape, Peter’s work is perhaps most reminiscent of the French post-impressionists. Sensual and emotive, he has a Paul Gauguin style primitiveness to his art, where the everyday and the natural are fused with an almost dreamlike sense of the fantastic. At its core, Peter’s art is a provocation and, whether addressing issues of violence or oppression, alienation, or love, he seeks to spark a reaction in his audience. Picking up from where Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat left off in the 1980s, Peter is steering the downtown New York art scene back to the unapologetic celebration of life outside the mainstream.

Selected exhibitions include the 30th International Festival of Fashion and Photography in Hyères, Galerie L’axolotl in Toulon, Palais de Tokyo and Library of Arts in Paris, Envoy Enterprises in New York, and the Tom of Finland Foundation in Los Angeles, among others. He has collaborated regularly with Bruce LaBruce, Slava Mogutin, and Brian Kenny.

Courtesy of the artist