Johnny Romeo

DAYDREAM BELIEVERS

New Paintings

In a world driven by conformity and complacency, what does it mean to live authentically and embrace your true self? With Daydream Believers, internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo makes his dynamic Adelaide solo debut with an electrifying series of new paintings and prints that explores the idea of identity as performance and transformation in his signature Kitsch Pop style. Brimming with vibrant, Pop-savvy imagery, explosive colour arrangements and psychedelic, Absurdist symbolism, Daydream Believers brings audiences on a breathtaking journey through the interior space between appearance and authenticity, where we have the freedom to continually evolve and reimagine our own identity. Australia’s leading Pop powerhouse envisions a neon-drenched, Technicolour world that blurs the lines between reality and fantasy, the familiar and the unexpected, as he compels viewers to consider the roles we play, the masks we wear, and the stories we tell in pursuit of purpose and belonging. At its heart, Daydream Believers is a powerful statement about hope and reinvention. Weaving together intrepid animal adventurers, soul-searching comic book heroes and Pop culture rebels, Australia’s King of Pop conjures a vivid universe of infinite possibilities, inviting us to transform, unlock our limitless potential, and become the Daydream Believers we were always destined to be.

Taking its name from The Monkees’ upbeat 1967 hit ‘Daydream Believer’, Johnny Romeo’s latest series is a vibrantly surreal celebration of the visionaries and free spirits who harness the power of their imagination to dream beyond convention and realise their authentic selves. Throughout Daydream Believers, Romeo toys with the slippery divide between truth and illusion, highlighting that the road towards self-actualisation is not a linear path, but a deeply personal voyage where we find meaning by confronting the psychedelic depths of our subconsciousness. Romeo deftly fuses together absurdist humour with the enigmatic philosophical musings of Surrealism to explore the duality of our dreams as both a realm of realisation, and a portal for escape in which identity becomes performance and our inner truth hides behind masks of our own making. 

In the kaleidoscopic Kitsch Pop universe of Daydream Believers, identity is never fixed, but rather something performed, constructed and continually rewritten. Romeo’s motley crew of sharply dressed animals, comic book outsiders and fearless explorers fully embrace the Technicolour stage of their own lives, slipping in and out of masks and projecting different versions of themselves as they navigate the tension between how they appear to the world and who they truly are beneath the surface. The notion of the self as performance is conceptually inspired by the reality-bending comedy drama ‘The Truman Show’ (1998) and the public persona of its lead actor Jimy Carrey, who has frequently spoken about himself as a constructed identity blurring the boundary between celebrity, character and the authentic self. Against this cultural backdrop, Romeo examines the connection between identity and performance with his signature razor sharp wit as he asks: who are we when the mask comes off, and how can we create the person we want to become?

For Johnny Romeo, the answer lies in the transformative power of the imagination. Daydream Believers elevates reinvention into an act of heroic spectacle, as death-defying rubber ducks take on the tempestuous crests of Hokusai’s ‘Great Wave’, iron-clad folk-outlaws become Marvel superheroes, and atomic Boy Wonders soar above the heights of Mt. Fuji. Romeo’s menagerie of Kitsch Pop pioneers possess a restless drive for transformation, as they conquer the high seas and soar through the heavens in pursuit of their true callings. Featuring the artist at his trippy, side-splitting best, Daydream Believers revels in the whimsical joy of letting the imagination run wild as ittakes the audience on a Beatles-esque ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ through the psyche. In this gleefully warped neon dreamscape, adorable kittens transform into delectable cupcakes while party-loving polar bears search for the endless Californian sun, playful avatars who have shed the identities handed to them and embraced the freedom to evolve. 

Daydream Believers is a high-voltage joyride through the strange, the surreal and the spectacular, that sees Australia’s King of Pop at his most visually explosive, philosophically searching and comedically whimsical. Gloriously blending life-affirming Pop culture icons with Technicolour fantasy and surreal dream logic, Johnny Romeo has delivered a psychedelic Pop manifesto for the believers who daydream not to escape reality, but to create it. 

Opening Night: Friday, 25th September 2026 – 6:30–8:00 pm.

Ex Animo Art, 134 King William Road, Hyde Park, SA 5061. Phone: (08) 7081 5940.

RSVP to attend the opening of Johnny Romeo’s DAYDREAM BELIEVERS is essential.

RSVP to: contact@exanimoart.com

Any enquiries regarding Johnny Romeo’s DAYDREAM BELIEVERS exhibition can be made directly through Ex Animo Art (contact@exanimoart.com) or by calling the gallery – P: (08) 7081 5940 / M: 0466 272 852.

Exhibition Dates: 25th September–17th October 2026.

September 13, 2026