In every generation, there are those who resist the sweeping tide of proscription and conformity. For New York-based artist Gio Black Peter, such a reaction comes naturally. Through his work, he breaks through the hardening shell of uniformity and taps into something more honest. While undeniably modern in his approach—often utilizing technology to offer a multimedia-fueled commentary on current issues—his artistic results are irrevocably rooted in the past. Picking up 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 that it was before complacency began to take hold. Like Jean Genet, there is a bit of an outlaw in Peter, a bit of a fighter—he doesn’t back away from the demands of his artistic expression. Peter breathes a life unfettered by shame and unencumbered by fleeting notions of morality, revealing that unexpected beauty and unanticipated vitality can be found by challenging the norm or pushing past our collective comfort.