Johnny Romeo
THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE
Recent Paintings
Picture this: David Bowie, Bruce Lee, Frida Kahlo and a gathering of Pop culture’s most famous figures all sitting at the table for dinner. In his delectable new series, The Beautiful People, internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo makes his electrifying debut in Sweden with a dinner guest-list for the ages. Renowned for his explosive fusion of colourful Pop slickness, punk rock grit, razor sharp wit and ingenious culture jamming, Romeo is the leading force in Australian Pop art and has dazzled audiences the world over with his highly distinctive Kitsch Pop style. In his latest collection of small scale original paintings, the artist brings together a veritable who’s who of Pop culture icons, ranging from rebellious heartthrobs and silver screen starlets to cosmic glam rockers and kung fu masters, and invites them to dinner. The Beautiful People is a vibrant, playful and unashamedly Pop showcase that gives Swedish audiences their first tasty glimpse into the mind of Australia’s King of Pop.
Emerging on to the Australian art scene in 2007, Johnny Romeo has become a force to be reckoned with in the international art world, turning heads across the globe with his delightfully offbeat visions of Pop culture. The artist’s frenetic and neon-drenched approach to Pop Art cleverly culture jams instantly recognisable figures from the Pop culture canon and re-configures them in refreshingly original ways that rupture our sense of nostalgia and familiarity, and speak to our contemporary Pop experience. Bursting with sleek graphic gusto, invigorating explosions of candy-coated hues and witty wordplay, Romeo’s impressive body of work pushes contemporary Pop Art into deliciously bold new directions.
The Beautiful People perfectly distils Johnny Romeo’s inimitable Kitsch Pop style into a visual Technicolour feast for the senses. Born out of the boredom and isolation brought upon by being in lock-down during the Covid 19 crisis, the series yearns for connection by exploring a thought-provoking premise: who would you invite, dead or alive, to your dream dinner party? In Romeo’s fantasy feast, eccentric Surrealist visionaries such as Salvador Dali rub shoulders with Afro-futurist funksters like Prince and Pop Art’s very own mastermind, Andy Warhol. Slick, graphic line work, confectionary sweet hues and razor sharp word assemblages all come together to create a body of work that oozes attitude and captures the glitz and glamour of Pop culture’s most revered celebrities and icons. While working with smaller scale paintings, the portraits featured pack as much punch as Romeo’s larger works, with each painting cheekily acting as both a guest and a tantalising bite-sized course at Johnny Romeo’s Postmodern banquet.
There is an air of the sacred to The Beautiful People that reflects modern society’s fascination with deifying celebrities, transforming them into gods and modern day saints. Romeo sharply makes this point through his carefully curated dinner guest-list, which comprises solely of tragic artists and dead celebrities. Painted with the reverential zeal of a seasoned Pop culture aficionado, Romeo’s small-scale portraits amusingly take on the feel of sacred icons drawn from Orthodox Christian hagiography as filtered through Romeo’s zesty Technicolour Pop lens.
An avid Pop culture connoisseur, Johnny Romeo draws inspiration from a truly eclectic spectrum of music, ranging from the skittering beats of jazz, to the hard-hitting rhymes of hip hop and the glorious scuzz of punk. The Beautiful People takes its title from shock rocker Marilyn Manson’s 1996 anthem of the same name. Much like the malevolent infectiousness of Manson’s song, Johnny Romeo’s paintings are an incendiary blend of rock’n’roll nihilism and Pop music’s sugary immediacy that offer warped, Technicolour visions of the Pop culture reality we are immersed in on a daily basis. The title is a statement of intent that celebrates the perpetual allure of Pop culture’s ‘Beautiful People’, while lamenting these same icons as tragic figures gone too quickly before their time. Shades of the 90s alternative underground also appear in the series through the influence of Riot Grrrl band L7, whose addictively aggressive grunge hit ‘Shitlist’ acted as a creative springboard for the audacious tone and concept of Romeo’s Kitsch Pop dinner party.
The Beautiful People is a bombastic celebration of the larger-than-life celebrities and creative visionaries that make Pop culture such a fascinating aspect of our everyday life. Like a seasoned chef masterfully curating their signature menu, Australia’s leading Pop artist delivers a vivacious visual banquet full of colour and humour that gives Swedish audiences a delectable first taste of Johnny Romeo’s signature Kitsch Pop style.
Opening Reception: Due to the current situation with COVID-19 we will host two exhibition openings to avoid crowds, Friday 28th August (18.00-20.00) and Saturday 29th August (12.00-16.00).
Lohme Art Gallery
Erik Dahlbergsgatan 24B,
211 48 Malmö, Sweden
Ph: +46 (0) 760 83 74 87
Any enquiries regarding Johnny Romeo’s THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE can be made directly through Lohme Art Gallery (info@lohmeartgallery.com) or by calling the gallery on +46 (0) 760 83 74 87
Exhibition Dates: August 28th – 17th October, 2020.
August 26, 2020