Johnny Romeo
THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO
New Paintings
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop Artist Johnny Romeo makes his thunderous return to Sydney with his exhilarating new series, THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO. Coming off the back of a sell-out exhibition at the Australian Consulate-General in New York and rapturously received shows in Perth and Canberra, Australia’s King of Pop delivers a knockout body of works that raises the bar for Neo-Expressionist Pop on the global stage. THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO is an electrifying trip down the kaleidoscopic rabbit hole of Pop culture, where the exuberant kitschness of Pop is fused with the thrill of the Absurd to capture a world where the old order is dead, and the possibilities of the new are limitless.
Inspired by the restless energy and unbridled creative potential of New York at the end of the 1970s, the title THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO is a colourful celebration of new dawns. The end of disco for Romeo is not so much a literal period or musical style, but rather something symbolic of a proverbial changing of the guard – the end of the old and the birth of the new. There is a tantalising irreverence to Johnny Romeo’s latest paintings, a desire to push his Technicolour Pop visions into edgy new terrains that mirror the exhilarating lawlessness of punk and hip hop in their early days, as they emerged from the ashes of the discotheque. Brimming with an undeniable swagger, the series cheekily contorts familiar popular imagery into brash, refreshingly original compositions that envision a future of Pop culture drenched in brilliant Technicolour.
At the same time, many of the paintings in THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO reflect Johnny Romeo’s fascination with art history. Amidst the artist’s tongue-in-cheek renditions of icons such as Michael Jackson, Winston Churchill and KISS lays a cornucopia of references to major artists and historic art movements, ranging from Christian Orthodox hagiography, to Impressionism and Dadaism. Romeo’s visual sampling and remixing of works by art luminaries such as Paul Cézanne and René Magritte represents a thrilling new direction for the artist, as he daringly blurs the lines between ‘high brow’ and ‘low brow’ culture, and what is considered sacred and kitsch.
Surrealism, in particular, has been hugely influential in the development of the series. Romeo amps up the Absurdist bent of his works with gleeful abandon, transforming beloved world leaders into animals, sanctifying pop stars and even breaking through the visual fourth wall through the rap symbology of Kendrick Lamar. Throughout THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO, the psychotropic spirit of Surrealism is tempered with Romeo’s uncompromisingly vibrant take on Pop Art, resulting in some of his most visually arresting works to date. The artist seamlessly melds Dali-esque psychedelia with the seductive pin-up imagery of the late, great Pop provocateur Mel Ramos, highlighting the playful fluidity and inherent absurdity of Pop culture with his signature dose of visual bombast and razor sharp wit.
The series showcases Romeo’s ingenious ability to fuse eclectic musical influences into his work. Evoking the heady compositions of prog rock and the free-form looseness of improvisational jazz, the paintings in the series ebb and flow like tracks in a concept record, connected through a series of visual motifs and cheeky double-entendres. A master of creating visual hooks, Romeo also grounds his work with eye-popping colour arrangements and taut, rhythmic text passages that recall the invigorating rush of punk and the bone-rattling beats of hip hop as they soundtrack disco’s twilight. Balancing the tight sheen of popular music with the intuitive impulses of jazz, the artist has crafted his most confident and accomplished paintings yet.
THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO is a powerful celebration of new dawns rising from the ashes of the old world. Bursting with sumptuous explosions of colour, searing satire and a delightfully Absurdist edge, the series sees Australia’s leading Pop artist take his inimitable fusion of punk energy and Kitsch Pop slickness to soaring new heights as he ushers in the incendiary last days of disco.
Opening reception with Artist: Friday 7th December 2018 @ 6:30-8:00pm
Harvey Galleries, 842 Military Road, Mosman, NSW 2088, Australia.
Ph: +61 2 9968 2153
RSVP to attend the opening of Johnny Romeo’s THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO is essential.
RSVP to: rsvp@harveygalleries.com.au
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO can be made directly through Harvey Galleries (admin@harveygalleries.com.au) or by calling the gallery on +61 2 9968 2153
Exhibition Dates: 7th December – 16th December 2018.
Johnny Romeo
NEW AMERICANA
New Paintings
The Australian Consulate-General, New York, in association with Anala Art Advisory, is proud to present NEW AMERICANA, the thrilling new series from internationally acclaimed Australian Pop artist Johnny Romeo. Exhibiting at the prestigious headquarters of the Australian Consulate-General in the heart of Manhattan, Australia’s King of Pop delivers a dazzling homage to classic American iconography that captures the larger-than-life spirit of America in brilliant Technicolour. To celebrate the major opening of the show, Pennsylvania-based craft-beer specialists Zeroday Brewing Company will be serving their one-of-a-kind Johnny Romeo IPA beer, alongside dynamic Ned Kelly prints created by the artist. NEW AMERICANA is an infectiously fun Kitsch Pop romp through American culture from the world-renowned culture jammer that fuses vibrant absurdist imagery with pithy cultural commentary to colourfully re-envision American icons in bold and surprising ways.
Americana has always beaten at the heart of Johnny Romeo’s distinctive Neo-Expressionist Pop visions. Growing up during the golden era of television, Romeo’s punchy Pop critiques reflect his life-long fascination with the glamour and melodrama of American Pop culture in all its forms. In NEW AMERICANA, the artist pushes his fascination with quintessential American iconography to exhilarating new heights, drawing heavily from the silver screen stars, larger-than-life sports heroes and brand name imagery of his childhood to create a highly frenetic snapshot of an America caught between its past and present. Romeo’s exuberant, neon-drenched approach to colour and slick graphic stylings imbues NEW AMERICANA with an undeniable Pop edge that puts a refreshingly contemporary twist on favourites such as Muhammad Ali and Marilyn Monroe.
Romeo gleefully drags the old into the new, using the imagery of classic Hollywood and the Pop sheen of mid-20th Century American advertising to examine the formulaic and cyclical nature of fame and celebrity. Each of the subjects chosen represent a recurring trope within American Pop culture, ranging from the inspirational fighter to the youthful rebel, the glamorous starlet to the fearless daredevil. By juxtaposing these archetypes with frenetic and anthemic word assemblages, Romeo plays around with language to deftly subvert our understandings of Pop culture. Delivered with rhythmic finesse, the artist plucks phrases from gangster patois, hip hop and rock’n’roll to create rich linguistic tapestries that demonstrate the power of words to distort and transform Pop symbols.
NEW AMERICANA sees Romeo at his most strident and rambunctious, using his signature razor sharp wit and penchant for absurdist imagery to craft a body of work that cleverly straddles the line between humour and melancholy. Carrying the torch of Pop provocateurs such as Mel Ramos and Jeff Koons, the artist masterfully uses satire and the juxtaposition of seemingly incongruous Pop elements to capture the glorious kitsch and over-the-top nature of American Pop culture. Johnny Romeo’s highly playful take on celebrity portraiture creates hilarious alternate realities within his paintings, where a US president is transformed into a swag rapper in a fresh Adidas tracksuit and a classical Hollywood glamour becomes a rough and tumble boxer.
Amidst the playful exuberance and sugarcoated Technicolour of NEW AMERICANA, there is a decidedly dark undercurrent to the series that speaks to the contemporary American experience. Romeo cleverly appropriates the icons of the past to provide punchy commentary on major issues facing the US today, covering everything from gun-violence and the #MeToo movement, to the influence of hip hop and the corporatisation of the entertainment industry. Veering from the comical to the political, the amusingly surreal to the all too real, the series powerfully subverts American icons to explore how Pop culture informs our identity and reflects the world in which we live.
As part of the opening night, dynamic Pennsylvanian brewers Zeroday Brewing Company will be serving their powerhouse Johnny Romeo IPA beer, which was specially brewed in collaboration with the artist. The limited edition brews feature bombastic designs of Ned Kelly by Romeo, which put a cheeky modern twist on the iconic Australian bushranger. Limited edition prints of the Ned Kelly designs will be featured at the launch of NEW AMERICANA, adding a delightfully antipodean spin on the artist’s homages to quintessential American icons. Renowned for their clean, balanced ales and lagers, Zeroday’s bold, zesty specialty Johnny Romeo IPA perfectly complements the crackling, colourful energy of Romeo’s inimitable Neo-Expressionist Pop.
NEW AMERICANA is an exhilarating slice of Technicolour-fuelled Kitsch Pop that showcases Australia’s leading Pop artist at the height of his powers. Johnny Romeo’s quirky attention-grabbing renditions of beloved American icons and brand names ingeniously flip nostalgia on its head, using cheeky double-entendres and surreal cultural mash-ups to transform the Pop culture of the past into the NEW AMERICANA.
Johnny Romeo | NEW AMERICANA | New Paintings | The Australia Consulate-General, New York, USA in association with Anala Art Advisory
Opening reception with Artist: Thursday 25th October 2018 | 6-8:30pm @ The Australia Consulate-General, Monash Room, Floor 34, 150 East 42nd Street, New York, USA.
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s NEW AMERICANA can be made directly through Anala Art Advisory (info@analaartadvisory.com.au) or by calling Michael Powe on +61 452 586 448
Exhibition Dates: 25th October – 14th December 2018
Johnny Romeo
GUNS‘N’POSES
Paintings
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo makes his audacious Canberra debut with his exhilarating mini retrospective, GUNS’N’POSES. The survey, expertly curated by Aarwun Gallery, brings together iconic Romeo works from all over Australia and the world that have never been seen before in Canberra. Recalling the giddy excitement of an old-school mix tape, GUNS’N’POSES delivers an eclectic selection of visual gems that bring some of Johnny Romeo’s most incendiary paintings to Australian audiences for the first time and showcase him as one of the world’s leading culture jammers. The artist’s bombastic and unapologetically rambunctious Kitsch Pop works fuse off-beat humour, sly cultural references and surreal imagery to re-imagine Pop culture icons through his inimitable Neo-Expressionist Pop lens.
Working throughout the early 2000s and erupting on to the Australian commercial art scene in 2007, Johnny Romeo has become a veritable tour de force in the international art world that has dazzled audiences with his bombastic and delightfully quirky visions of Pop culture. GUNS’N’POSES offers audiences a brilliant insight into the evolution of Australia’s leading Pop artist, exhibiting iconic Romeo works that have been extensively sourced from local and international collections. Veering from the grungy, stream-of-consciousness graffiti punk of his earlier period to the neon-drenched Technicolour Pop slickness of his later work, the mini retrospective is a testament to Romeo’s masterful ability to constantly push Pop Art into thrilling new terrain.
Taking its title from a playful riff on the name of classic LA rockers GUNS’N’POSES, the survey captures Australia’s King of Pop at his most audacious. The irreverent nod to the iconic 80’s hard rock hell-raisers reflects the electric dynamism of Johnny Romeo’s paintings, which buzz with the glorious energy and irrepressible swagger of classic rock songs played at maximum volume. The artist’s signature blend of frenetic imagery, explosive Technicolour arrangements and boisterous word assemblages create dazzling Neo-Expressionist renditions of the modern world that explore our fascination with the gunners and posers of Pop culture – the trail-blazers, and those comfortable to ride on their coat tails.
As a world-renowned culture jammer, Johnny Romeo gleefully plunders the canon of Pop culture to unearth and reconfigure classic Pop iconography in refreshingly new, often surprising ways. The artist draws on a diverse spectrum of Pop culture that samples everything from comic book heroes and advertising, to notorious music stars and tragic celebrities. Playing with our sense of nostalgia, Romeo ingeniously uses the pulp fiction and cult imagery of the past to provide punchy social critiques that speak to our contemporary Pop experience.
Carrying the torch of Pop Art provocateurs like Jeff Koons and Mel Ramos, Johnny Romeo’s rambunctious blend of exuberant imagery and textual witticisms skewers the zany absurdity of modern life and ruptures our sense of the familiar within Pop culture. Fragments of lyrics from street-hardened rap dons and rock’n’roll poets are melded to the catchy jargon of advertising in Romeo’s paintings, creating powerful textual hooks that allow the artist to inject new layers of meaning to indelible icons such as Frida Kahlo and Ned Kelly.
GUNS’N’POSES is a thrilling mini retrospective of visual gems old and new that draws deep from Johnny Romeo’s illustrious career as one of the world’s leading visual Pop auteurs. Bursting with neon-drenched Technicolour explosions, bold graphic imagery and mischievous wit, the series is a powerful statement of intent that provides a captivating glimpse into the mind of Australia’s King of Pop.
Opening reception with Artist: Saturday 8th September 2018 | 6-8pm @ Aarwun Gallery
Shop 11 Federation Square, O Hanlon Place, Nicholls, ACT +61 2 6230 2055
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s GUNS’N’POSES can be made directly through Aarwun Gallery (aarwuncanberra@bigpond.com) or by calling the gallery on 61 2 6230 2055
RSVP for Opening Night is essential.
RSVP to: aarwuncanberra@bigpond.com
Exhibition Dates: 8th September – 22nd September 2018
Johnny Romeo
ROCK IS DEAD
New Paintings
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo makes his triumphant return to Perth with his most incendiary series to date, ROCK IS DEAD. The artist has crafted an electrifyingly colourful and personal homage to the essence of rock’n’roll that amplifies his inimitable Neo-Expressionist Pop stylings to scorching new levels. Carrying the torch of Pop provocateurs like Mel Ramos and Jeff Koons, Australia’s leading Pop artist juxtaposes punchy cultural commentary with exuberant, absurdist imagery to cleverly subvert rock music tropes and critique the slow death of rock’n’roll in our cultural landscape. Romeo’s frenetic works lament the bygone era of rock’s heyday, while recalling the thrilling, larger-than-life spirit that made icons such as Freddie Mercury and Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ such enduring forces in music.
Over the last decade, countless ink has been spilt on the demise of rock’n’roll. Rock stars such as The Who’s Roger Daltrey and KISS’ Gene Simmons have decried the fading influence of rock in today’s musical climate, noting that the fire and popularity that once propelled rock’n’roll has now been taken up by hip hop. In ROCK IS DEAD, Johnny Romeo masterfully contends with the death of rock’n’roll through his unique Neo-Expressionist Pop lens, crafting a powerful body of work that pays tribute to the end of an era and infers the emerging dominance of hip hop within Pop culture. Part elegy, part celebration, the series is a raucous love letter to the rock stars that plastered bedroom walls, and the vital music that soundtracked generations of restless youth.
Death permeates Romeo’s work in ways both direct and subtle, melancholic and grimly humorous. Morbid motifs such as skulls and skeletons are littered throughout the series, lending the paintings a primal energy that recalls the visceral nihilism of punk and rock’n’roll’s fixation with living fast and dying young. In other instances, Romeo cheekily inverts rock’n’roll’s penchant for mythologising to metaphorically ‘kill’ off rock stars, injecting his works with obscure and often surreal Pop culture references that comment on death while turning common perceptions of figureheads such as John Lennon and Motorhead’s Ian ‘Lemmy’ Kilmister on their head.
Despite its macabre ruminations, ROCK IS DEAD is an inherently life-affirming series that showcases Johnny Romeo at his most strident and bombastic. The artist’s signature graphic line-work and exuberant Technicolour arrangements are delivered with the sonic heft of thundering distorted guitars dialled up to 11, giving each painting a crackling energy that is impossible to ignore. In ROCK IS DEAD, Romeo doesn’t just paint iconic rock-stars, he visually inhabits them. Breathing new life into tired rock tropes, Romeo has crafted memorable portraits that evoke the irreverence of Pop Art upstarts like Mel Ramos while embodying the spirit of musical heroes in absurd and refreshing ways. Each work is drenched in symbolism, imbued with multiple layers of meaning that point not only to what is visible, but more fascinatingly what is happening beyond the pictorial plane.
Rock’n’roll has always been a part of Romeo’s work, but here the artist truly embraces that influence and takes it to soaring new heights. Acting as the quintessential visual rock DJ, Romeo deftly samples the classic album imagery of rock masterpieces such as The Clash’s ‘London Calling’ and Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ to create thrillingly layered mash-ups that harness the power of rock’n’roll iconography and interrogate our relationship with music.
As a life-long fan of rock, Johnny Romeo expertly plumbs the depths of popular music to create visually anthemic word assemblages that recall the rousing choruses of classic rock hits. The artist playfully splices fragments of song titles and lyrics with punchy cultural references, using his signature acerbic wit to subvert rock’n’roll’s overtly masculine tendencies and comment on contemporary issues ranging from feminism and queer identity to grief and cultural appropriation. Text is ingeniously used to also examine the rising influence of hip hop as rock’s heir apparent, demonstrated through the interplay of rock and rap vernacular and the subtle referencing of hip hop brandnames interspersed throughout the series.
A defiant statement of intent from Australia’s King of Pop, ROCK IS DEAD sees Johnny Romeo deliver a truly bombastic and righteously riotous body of works that captures the raw grit and larger-than-life spirit of rock’n’roll with immense wit and electrifying energy. The series is a darkly humorous slice of potent Kitsch Pop that explores shifting musical tides, reflecting a world where the danger and fury of rock’n’roll is dying but refuses to fade away.
Opening reception with Artist: Thursday 9th August 2018 | 6-8pm @ Linton & Kay Galleries,
Fridays Studio / West Perth Gallery, 11 Old Aberdeen Place, West Perth 6005
+61 8 6465 4314
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s ROCK IS DEAD can be made directly through Linton & Kay Galleries (perth@lintonandkay.com.au) or by calling the gallery on +61 8 6465 4314
lintonandkay.com.au
RSVP for Opening Night is essential.
RSVP to: perth@lintonandkay.com.au
Exhibition Dates: 4th August – 26th August 2018
Johnny Romeo
ELECTRIC BOOGALOO
New Paintings
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo makes his triumphant return to Sydney with his thrilling new exhibition, ELECTRIC BOOGALOO. Following a standout year that saw Romeo sell out shows across Australia, New Zealand and the US, and release his 10 year retrospective book Plastic Fantastic, the series showcases Australia’s King of Pop at his most playful and electrifying. Brimming with an undeniable sense of fun and rhythmic vibrancy, ELECTRIC BOOGALOO is a larger-than-life celebration of the pioneering spirit of early hip hop culture that pushes Romeo’s inimitable Neo-Expressionist Pop style to glorious new heights.
Named after the 1982 sequel to ‘Breakdance’, the series pays homage to the intrepid spirit of early hip-hop pioneers, who reconfigured elements of their own Pop reality to create art that was wholly new and original. ELECTRIC BOOGALOO sees Romeo add exciting new flavours to his distinct Neo-Expressionist Pop repertoire, gleefully mashing together eclectic icons ripped from the annals of the Pop canon to playfully subvert our understandings of Pop imagery. Like early DJs grafting disco samples onto hard-hitting drum machine beats, Romeo’s mastery of juxtaposition sees him combine seemingly disparate Pop iconography into some of his most thrillingly absurd and unique takes on Pop culture yet.
Romeo achieves this with hilariously surreal results in the work Dark Cent, in which he depicts a stoic Vincent van Gogh donning a Batman mask. The initially jarring nature of the mash-up gives way to a more nuanced exploration of the tortured anti-hero, a recurring archetype in both art history and comic books. That such deep cultural conversations could be gleaned from such a cheeky rendition of Van Gogh is testament to Romeo’s adeptness at navigating and harnessing the fluidity of Pop icons.
ELECTRIC BOOGALOO features some of Johnny Romeo’s most unapologetically Pop works to date, and bursts at the seams with an irrepressible sense of rambunctious fun. Inspired by the works of Pop Art provocateur Mel Ramos, the series is a hyper-saturated neon celebration of the glorious kitschiness of Pop. Romeo’s chic usage of advertising tropes references Ramos’ tongue in cheek blend of iconic brand names and pin-up imagery, transforming figures such as the Mona Lisa and Popeye the Sailor Man into street-hardened symbols of luxury rap.
In keeping with the frenetic movement and dazzling braggadocio of early breakdancing and hip-hop culture, Romeo imbues his colour arrangements with an insatiable exuberance and energy. High-intensity Technicolour hues and saccharine-sweet tones virtually explode from the canvas, recalling the graffiti streaked subways and vibrant edginess of the Bronx in the early 1980’s. In many ways, Romeo’s vivacious colour arrangements embody the limitless potential and restlessness of young hip-hop artists cutting their teeth on the mean streets of Harlem, hungry to forge new sounds and bust new moves.
Amidst the spirited bubblegum hues and sleek, Pop imagery, ELECTRIC BOOGALOO also reveals Johnny Romeo at his politically brazen and confrontational. The artist delivers rapid fire observations on controversial issues ranging from the Marriage Equality vote to America’s obsession with guns and sexual harassment in Hollywood, all served with Romeo’s signature blend of razor sharp wit and Absurdist gallows humour. The heavily loaded paintings work like Pop culture seismographs, charting shifts and changes in contemporary society with a heavy satirical bent.
Living up to its namesake, there is a serious groove that courses through ELECTRIC BOOGALOO. The slick, bold line-work of Romeo’s icons and the eye-catching punchiness of his textual arrangements perfectly captures the pulsating delivery of break-dancers getting down to the kick-snare thud of bone-rattling hip hop beats. Romeo’s approach to witty stencilled wordplay in particular lends the series a rhythmic heft that imbues each work with catchy visual hooks laden with boisterous double entendres.
Bold, audacious, and delectably irreverent, ELECTRIC BOOGALOO pays tribute to the energy and excitement of the hip-hop underground in the early 1980s. The series is a kaleidoscopic, colour-drenched feast for the senses that gleefully mashes the invigorating, bone-rattling rhythms of rap with the candy-coated sheen of Pop to create Johnny Romeo’s most intoxicating and stridently in-your face works yet.
Opening reception with Artist: Friday 8th December 2017 @ 6:30-8:00pm
Harvey Galleries, 842 Military Road, Mosman, NSW 2088, Australia.
Ph: +61 2 9968 2153
RSVP to attend the opening of ELECTRIC BOOGALOO is essential.
RSVP to: admin@harveygalleries.com.au
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s ELECTRIC BOOGALOO can be made directly through Harvey Galleries (admin@harveygalleries.com.au) or by calling the gallery on +61 2 9968 2153
Exhibition Dates: 7th December – 17th December 2017.
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop artist Johnny Romeo is proud to announce that he will be a featured artist for Austin’s premier international art event, POP AUSTIN. Now in its fourth year, POP AUSTIN draws from the worlds of fine art, sculpture, photography, digital art and light-based installation to offer a truly unique showcase of the world’s most exciting artistic talent. As Australia’s leading Pop artist, Romeo brings his inimitable Neo-Expressionist Pop style to a stellar lineup of contemporary art luminaries that includes the likes of YBA bad boy Damien Hirst, iconic street artist Mr Brainwash and Pop Art visionary Jeff Koons.
POP Austin International Art Show | November 9-12, 2017 | Fair Market – Austin, Texas, USA.
Johnny Romeo
THE ARTHOUSE SERIES
New Paintings
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo makes his triumphant return to New Zealand with his thrilling new show, THE ARTHOUSE SERIES. The exhibition showcases Romeo’s distinct Neo-Expressionist Pop explosions in all their electrifying Technicolour glory, but with a few tantalising twists. Partnering with Auckland’s 12 Gallery, THE ARTHOUSE SERIES is an entirely commissioned show that will bring clients and collectors up close and personal with Australia’s King of Pop.
On August 31st, 12 Gallery will open its gallery and home space to clients and audiences for the opening night of Romeo’s THE ARTHOUSE SERIES. 12 Gallery is an innovative new art space in Auckland situated on the converted ground floor of a magnificent multi-million dollar home. Renowned for their intimate and exclusive shows, 12 Gallery has exhibited works from notable New Zealand artists such as Tanja Jade McMillan (Misery), Ewan McDougall and Andy Leleisi’uao.
An exhibition with a difference, Romeo and 12 Gallery have invited clients and collectors to commission the artworks they want to be featured in THE ARTHOUSE SERIES. In the show, the artist tackles completely new subject matter alongside iconic Johnny Romeo imagery, all wrought in his undeniably rollicking Neo-Expressionist Pop style. A scintillating brew of comic book nostalgia, celebrity worship and contemporary politics, THE ARTHOUSE SERIES sees Johnny Romeo take on the role of the postmodern visual DJ, working with clients to create bold, unapologetically Pop visions of the contemporary world.
Full of concentrated bursts of pure, unbridled colour and muscular, graphic line-work, THE ARTHOUSE SERIES is classic Johnny Romeo dialled up to eleven. Romeo’s mastery of intense colour and punchy, rhythmic imagery with a street-art edge is in full effect, as Pop icons spring forth from the canvas with irrepressible energy, bolstered by the artist’s penchant for pithy Pop witticisms. Each commission sees Johnny Romeo at the height of his powers, delivering blow after knockout blow of boisterous bubblegum mayhem with gleeful gusto and finesse.
THE ARTHOUSE SERIES bridges the gap between artist and audience in a very special way. On Friday September 1st, clients and collectors will be invited to an exclusive VIP dinner with Johnny Romeo. 12 Gallery will be transformed into an intimate dining experience, followed by an address to the collectors from Romeo himself. The cosy, private set-up acts as the perfect backdrop for the accomplished artist to speak candidly about his work, art-making process, inspirations, and the stories that inform his Pop-obsessed worldview.
THE ARTHOUSE SERIES promises to be a truly unforgettable exhibition, providing clients and collectors the incredible opportunity to not only commission works from Johnny Romeo, but gain a rare and personalised insight into one of Australia’s leading creative minds.
Johnny Romeo | THE ARTHOUSE SERIES | New Paintings @ 12 Gallery Auckland, New Zealand | August 31st – September 26th 2017.
Opening reception with Artist: THURSDAY August 31st 2017 @ 6-9pm @ 12 Gallery
109A Beach Road, Castor Bay, Auckland 0620, New Zealand.
Any enquiries regarding Johnny Romeo’s THE ARTHOUSE SERIES can be made directly through 12 Gallery (info@12gallery.com) or by calling the gallery on +64 21 501 911.
Johnny Romeo
BOOGIE STREET
Paintings & Sculptures
BOOGIE STREET is an exciting retrospective featuring select original paintings and new sculptures by internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo. Coinciding with Tasmania’s premier music, arts and culture festival DARK MOFO, BOOGIE STREET offers audiences an electrifying insight into Romeo’s visual Pop journey, and a scintillating glimpse into the future direction of his work. The exhibition also sees Romeo championing fellow artists, as he introduces the works of Pennsylvania-based painter and close friend Kurt Herrmann.
The retrospective brilliantly showcases the evolution of Australia’s leading Pop artist over his illustrious, decade-long career. Lovingly hand-selected by Penny Contemporary, Johnny Romeo’s BOOGIE STREET draws on paintings from the artist’s personal studio and overseas collections from 2008 – 2017. BOOGIE STREET is a testament to Romeo’s uncanny ability to push the Pop envelope into thrilling new terrain, veering from the rawness of Romeo’s earlier gritty, graffiti-punk stylings to the chic Neo-Expressionist Technicolour Pop bombast of his later works.
Since busting on to the Australian art scene in 2007, Johnny Romeo has become an international force to be reckoned with, creating vital, highly kinetic Pop paintings with a rambunctious punk edge. Romeo gleefully appropriates Pop icons, brand name imagery and popular music, mish-mashing Mohammed Alis and Ned Kellys with the braggadocio of hip-hop lyrics to reconfigure beloved icons into bold, satirical visions of a Pop-obsessed world. Much like the title of the exhibition, there is an irrepressible boogie and swagger to Romeo’s inimitable Neo-Expressionist Pop style. The retrospective illustrates Johnny Romeo’s fascinating progression in balancing imagery and text in his paintings, as he moves from the Basquiat-esque acid-jazz squall of his late 2000’s paintings into the funky, rhythmic punchiness that has come to define many of his recent bodies of work.
BOOGIE STREET is as much an insight into the past as it is a window into the future. Johnny Romeo continues his bold venture into fresh new territory with his addition of neon-nightmare wall sculptures, a shift he began experimenting with in his 2016 Brisbane show WASTELAND. The disembodied perspex portraits resemble the withering surfaces of billboards from a post-Pop dystopia, a surreal simulacra of advertisements as filtered through Romeo’s sugar-rush Pop lens. Inspired by Jeff Koons’ recreation of kitsch everyday objects, Romeo’s sculptures interrogate notions of authorship and mass-production both in his own practice and the world of Pop culture.
A keen supporter of fellow artists, Johnny Romeo is also excited to introduce audiences to the expressive paintings of Pennsylvania-based artist and dear friend Kurt Herrmann as part of BOOGIE STREET. Living at the foot of the Appalachian mountains, Herrmann’s paintings are gestural, colour-rich observations of regional life in all its beauty, banality and occasional backwardness. Colour is treated as a living force in Hermann’s work, evoking the seasonal changes of rural Pennsylvania with warmth and liveliness. While his provincial musings may seem removed from the hyper speed, urbane Pop of Romeo’s works, Hermann’s pithy observations of Appalachia compliment Romeo’s own propensity for capturing life’s absurdities on canvas.
BOOGIE STREET draws deep from Johnny Romeo’s highly celebrated decade long career, unearthing visual gems old and new to demonstrate his mastery of the Pop format. Full of Romeo’s signature colour explosions, brazen imagery and razor sharp wit, the series is a captivating glimpse into the mind of Australia’s King of Pop, while shining a glorious new light on new directions and unseen talent.
Johnny Romeo | BOOGIE STREET | Paintings & Sculptures @pennycontemporary Hobart, Australia | June 9th – July 3rd 2017.
Opening reception with Artist: FRIDAY June 9th 2017 @ 5:30-7pm @ Penny Contemporary, Hobart.
187 Liverpool Street, Hobart, TAS, 7000.
Any enquiries regarding Johnny Romeo’s BOOGIE STREET can be made directly through Penny Contemporary (info@pennycontemporary.com.au) or by calling the gallery on +61 3 6231 5655.
Johnny Romeo featured in today’s Perth SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE (Sunday 4th June 2017), pages 14 & 15.
Johnny Romeo
PURE HEROINE
New Paintings
PURE HEROINE is the triumphant latest series from internationally acclaimed Pop artist Johnny Romeo. Following up from his celebrated and sell-out 2016 show WHEN WE RULED THE WORLD at Linton & Kay Galleries, Romeo returns to Perth in a blaze of glory, delivering an electrifying, neon-drenched celebration of women that sees the leading force in Australian Pop art deliver his strongest works to date.
Inspired by the new wave of Feminism that has swept the world, especially post-Trump, the series captures the gutsiness and defiance of iconic, independent women who smash through glass ceilings and refuse to remain silent in a hostile, male-dominated world. PURE HEROINE is the third instalment in Romeo’s ‘Women Series’, and acts as the spiritual sister to his critically renowned, female-centred exhibitions PUSSY RIOT (Alice Springs, 2014) and ANGRY BIRDS (New York, 2015).
Drawing its title from the 2013 debut album from Kiwi pop star Lorde, PURE HEROINE is a bold and unapologetic celebration of women at their most fearless and rebellious. The series bursts at the seams with vibrant explosions of confectionary-sweet Technicolour hues that speak to the spirit and dynamism of strong women kicking against the constraints of society.
A lifelong fan of film, Johnny Romeo imbues his latest paintings with a truly larger-than-life, cinematic quality. Romeo’s monumental pastel portraits of tragic artistic spirits and leading ladies are slick and unswervingly confident, evoking the classic posters of Old Hollywood as re-envisioned through his garish Neo-Expressionist Pop lens. Meeting the stare of the audience head-on, Romeo’s rollicking renditions of iconic women such as Audrey Hepburn and Princess Leia subvert the male gaze, the stillness of their poses signifying a resolute demand to be respected. By honing in on the faces of his subjects, Romeo has captured fiery femmes at their most intimate and confrontational, refusing to be ignored as they occupy the centre stage of the canvas.
Johnny Romeo’s cinematic approach to composition is also taken to glorious new heights through his depictions of commanding comic book vixens and Pop culture sirens. Evoking the headstrong, femme fatales of Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Kill Bill’, Romeo’s rambunctious take on characters such as Harley Quinn and Catwoman teeter between beauty and brutality, recalling the intensity of Grindhouse mavens in the tense moments before all hell breaks loose. Romeo’s cartoon Amazons are in complete control of their bodies, their sexuality, their identities, and are painted with a deliberate stillness and in exaggerated, majestic poses that highlight their sense of power and self-assuredness.
Punchy, rhythmic text assemblages and clever wordplay are employed to great effect in PURE HEROINE. Romeo cleverly subverts rhetoric often used to objectify women into epithets of female empowerment, infusing each of his works with a hooky, anthemic feel that conjures the spirit of the riot grrrl movement. This can be seen in the work ‘Vest Noir’, which skilfully turns our hyper-sexualised perceptions of Marilyn Monroe on their head. The slight shift in text from ‘frisky’ to ‘risky’ transforms the entire tenor of the work, re-contextualising Marilyn Monroe into a risk-taking pioneer of Girl Power who embraced sexual liberation on her own terms.
PURE HEROINE is an incendiary and unapologetic shot of Neo-Expressionist Pop adrenaline that rails against the system with unrelenting passion and undeniable attitude. Brimming with Romeo’s most anthemic imagery and explosive colour arrangements yet, the series is a bold and vibrant statement that envisions a world of Pop culture in which the future is female.
Johnny Romeo | PURE HEROINE | New Paintings @ Linton & Kay Galleries, Perth, Australia.
May 27th, 2017 – June 25th, 2017.
Opening reception with Artist: Thursday 1st June, 2017 | 6-8pm @ Linton & Kay Galleries, Perth.
The Old Perth Technical School – Level 1 / 137 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA 6000.
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s PURE HEROINE can be made directly through Linton & Kay Galleries (perth@lintonandkay.com.au) or by calling the gallery on +61 8 6465 4314.