2008-12-08T14:36:00.000-08:00

GIO BLACK PETER (born Giovani Paolo Andrade Guevara) was born in Guatemala and emigrated illegally to the United States with his family at the age of five. The name Black Peter is taken from the folkloric elf who delivers "bad" presents to bad children on Christmas.

A performance artist as well as an ardent visual artist, he examines text and subject, believability and fakery, authority and multiplicity. His psychosexual events, which act as a slap in the face of social convention, quickly turned him into one of the young artists who participate in today's dialogue regarding the new reality (the falling apart of the high profile white box presentation and the desire to bring art closer to the people).

At the core of Black Peter's thinking lies the idea that the life of art is dependent upon the willingness of the viewer to suspend his/her orientation and play both in the believability of lies and the falsehoods appearing true-to-life.

Familiarity and seductive appearance keep the viewer returning to his art, which poses doubt and reflection at its core.

The artist carefully uses selected formats, techniques and images, some of which were generated by advertising and entertainment agencies for their efficaciousness and uses them to participate in a system of manipulation. The moment the viewers experience attraction to the art, they too are implicated. While the original purpose of the mass media images is to sentimentalize, glamorize, capture and thereby close-off the experience from question, Black Peter represents this information so as to reveal the fake and redirect the examination to his agenda.

PAINTINGS ON SUBWAY MAPS

"THIS IS MY GUN" SERIES

SELF PORTAITS