Peter Missing is a New York City artist, poet, musician, and activist who relocated to Berlin in 1993.
History
Missing grew up in the Bronx during the 1950s and 1960s, as a middle child of three siblings. He's Italian and one-third Danish. His father was a postal worker who delivered to the Empire State Building. He was one of the organizers of the protest against the Tompkins Square Park curfew that led to the Tompkins Square Park Riot. His symbol, an upside down martini glass with three strikes crossed out, means "party's over". The symbol used to be spotted all over the Lower East Side. It was often accompanied by anti-gentrification, anti-police brutality, anti-corporations, and pro-environment slogans. The symbol was originally designed for a band Missing founded in 1980 called Drunk Driving and has grown to symbolize the decline of our planet and a warning to start something new; time for a change. He founded the influential underground industrial band Missing Foundation while living in Hamburg, Germany in 1984 and imported it to the U.S. in 1985 with new members. The band has included about 20 members over its history. The name came from the East German police unit whose job it was to track down people who fled to West Germany. At shows Missing would sometimes set himself on fire as part of the performance. The band released five albums with Restless Records in L.A. including Your House Is Mine which was named Rock Album of the Week in the New York Times in 1988. Missing has been painting for the past 30 years and has works in over 30 museums in the U.S. and Europe including The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Getty Institute, and the Stadt Museum in Berlin. Until October 2011, Missing had his gallery, Conto Gallery, in Kunsthaus Tacheles in Berlin. In 2012, Missing opened a new art space called Transmission Gallery in Copenhagen, Denmark. Missing worked many years as a film set designer in Hamburg and taught art to troubled youth in different German schools. Missing now resides in Denver, Colorado, where his gallery, Gallery Late Realism, is open by appointment. Besides the gallery and creative work, including music performances, Missing runs creative artwork classes to the local kids in the area at a nearby youth center.
