Johnny Romeo
KINGS OF THE WILD FRONTIER
New Paintings
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo makes his thunderous debut in New Orleans with his latest series KINGS OF THE WILD FRONTIER. Romeo’s new collection of original works sees the world-leading Kitsch Pop provocateur at his most bombastic and brazen, fusing together the irresistible pop hooks of the New Romantic movement with the majestic regalia of traditional royal portraits and the invigorating bullishness of Cubist masters Pablo Picasso and George Condo. Exhibiting at Graphite Gallery on Royal Street in New Orleans’ French Quarter, Romeo evokes the area’s regal and romantic connections to Paris while paying homage to the restless punk energy that burns at the heart of New Orleans and continues to make it a centre of boundary pushing creativity. With KINGS OF THE WILD FRONTIER, Australia’s leading Pop artist has delivered his most breathtaking distillation of Kitsch Pop slickness and Cubist expressiveness to date, envisioning a rich, neon-drenched world where beasts run the show and punks are the new royals.
Taking its title from Adam and the Ants 1980 anthem of the same name, KINGS OF THE WILD FRONTIER is a gloriously Technicolour foray into the realm of royalty that explores what it means to be a ‘new royal’ in a world that has largely done away with traditional notions of nobility. The series brims with bright, bubble-gum colours, delightfully chic rulers and a vibrant flair for theatricality that evokes the spirit of the New Romantics movement of the early 1980s. Characterised by their love of regal costumes, larger-than-life personalities and slick Pop melodies, the New Romantics took the energy of punk and fused it with the futuristic synthesisers of New Wave and the fabulous schlock of glam rock to create a potent youth movement that revolutionised Pop culture and turned traditional notions of masculinity and gender on their head.
Romeo gleefully re-appropriates the traditional austerity of royal portraiture to create rogue rulers, dandyish dukes and elegant earls that embody the gender-bending stylishness of the New Romantics. The paintings powerfully envision a new wild frontier of self-made punk nobles who have ascended to power not through royal blood but by tearing up the rulebook and fighting their way to the top. Striking a brilliant balance between the sophisti-pop of Roxy Music and the propulsive, tribal rhythms of Adam and the Ants, the series is an unapologetically brash celebration of the fearless vision of the New Romantics and the self-made new royals who channel their energy today. In KINGS OF THE WILD FRONTIER, Adam and the Ant’s triumphant declaration ‘of a new Royal family/ A wild nobility/ We are the family’ becomes a statement of intent where the elitism and oppression of old royalty gives way to a world where anyone can take a shot at the throne.
The theme of breaking with tradition and seeing the world from new, exciting perspectives is further explored through Johnny Romeo’s dazzling fusion of portraiture and Cubism. KINGS OF THE WILD FRONTIER, the artist brings the influence of Cubist master Pablo Picasso and the frenetic expressiveness of neo-Cubist provocateur George Condo to the forefront of his practice, and in doing so has crafting some of his most bold and bombastic works. Jagged, geometric fragments powerfully disrupt the sleek sheen of Romeo’s Pop royal portraits, lending the works a palpable physicality that evokes the signature garish make-up of New Romantics and Cubism’s radical approach to re-envisioning perceived realities. Long inspired by the works of Picasso, the artist has skilfully appropriated shapes and figures from his own past works into his latest paintings, twisting and angling them into spirited configurations that breathe new life into his depictions of commanders and rulers. On a more emotional level, Romeo’s frenzied and distorted portraits interrogate the complex states of mind experienced by royals who have clawed their way to the top, recalling the psychologically fraught imagery and raw irreverence of George Condo.
Showcasing his mastery of mashups, Johnny Romeo ruptures the muscular, angular heft of his New Royals with a healthy injection of Kitsch in the form of cute animals. In the paintings, Romeo’s kings of the wild frontier are depicted clutching a wide range of creatures, ranging from piglets and lambs, to fuzzy felines and koalas. The clumsy awkwardness of their poses imbues them with a relatable sense of humanity, calling to mind the classical portraits of nobility as filtered through the hilariously awkward shots of royal visits gone wrong taken for tabloid magazines. Echoing David Bowie’s New Romantic-inspired anthem ‘Teenage Wildlife’ (1980), the cute creatures offer a disarming sense of tenderness to the works while also tapping into our more primal and animalistic instincts as we venture into the wilderness of the new frontier.
A glorious cocktail of vibrant colour explosions, slick graphic imagery and Cubist bullishness, KINGS OF THE WILD FRONTIER is an electrifying homage to the daring spirit and fierce flamboyance of the New Romantics movement from one of the world’s leading voices in Kitsch Pop. In Romeo’s new wild frontier, royalty is not something you’re born into, but a state of mind that calls us to embrace our inner wild child and become the rulers of our own reality.
Opening 4th of July Weekend.
Preview: Friday 2nd July – 12-6pm | Opening Night: Saturday 3rd July – 6-9pm
Graphite Gallery | 936 Royal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, 70116, United States of America.
Any enquiries regarding Johnny Romeo’s KINGS OF THE WILD FRONTIER can be made directly through Graphite Gallery (info@graphitenola.com) or by calling the gallery on +1 (505) 577-7873.
Exhibition Dates: 3rd July – 2nd August 2021.
June 30, 2021