Johnny Romeo featured in Alice Spring’s CENTRALIAN ADVOCATE – Page 17 & 32 (Friday 7th March 2014).
Johnny Romeo
PUSSY RIOT
New Paintings
On February 21, 2012, three members of the Russian feminist punk collective Pussy Riot were arrested after staging a performance in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.
In his breathtaking latest series, Pussy Riot, internationally acclaimed Neo-Expressionist Pop artist Johnny Romeo pays homage to the rebellious spirit of Pussy Riot, creating a coruscating collision of comic book femme fatales, explosive colour arrangements and riotous energy.
Following a sensational 2013, in which Romeo held highly celebrated sold out shows in the US and Australia and enjoyed record sales in Singapore, Pussy Riot sees Johnny Romeo smash open 2014 with all guns blazing.
With Pussy Riot, Romeo has crafted some of his most visually arresting works to date, fully embracing the sensual curves of the female form with his signature graphic gusto to create a Technicolour Gotham of buxom bad girls. Psychedelic colours sputter and slash across the canvas as exaggerated action poses imbue the works with an urgency that recalls the blistering rhythms of riot grrrl rock. Experimenting with unorthodox angles, Romeo drags the audience kicking and screaming into an exhilarating and disorienting maelstrom of garish hues and punk-rock mayhem.
Cheekily nodding towards the masked balaclavas and coloured tights of Pussy Riot’s incendiary performances, Romeo’s paintings draw from a rich cast of comic book vicious vixens, ranging from Cat Woman to Bat Girl.
In the spirit of the feminist collective, Romeo’s appropriated anti-heroines share a taste for rebellion and a refusal to be contained by the rigid strictures of society. Through this series, Pussy Riot’s irreverent ‘punk prayer for freedom’ is re-envisaged as a banshee scream of manic neo-Expressionist pop energy.
Like a shot of pure adrenaline, Pussy Riot is an exhilarating tour de force of sex-laced anarchy. Johnny Romeo’s fascination with Grindhouse cinema shines through as he masterfully straddles the line between seduction and ultra-violence creating works dripping with sultriness and danger. ‘Five Hives’ sees a gun-slinging Black Widow hanging provocatively within the canvas, the physical intensity of her pose suggestive of both acrobatics and bondage. In ‘New York Dolls’, Romeo amps the energy to overdrive, with the unbridled ferocity of Romeo’s Cat Woman threatening to rip through the very fabric of the canvas.
Ever the Postmodern sampler, Pussy Riot is rife with allusions to hip-hop and rock’n’roll. With his signature gusto for Neo-Expressionism and graffiti art, Romeo makes clever textual references to rap staples like Notorious B.I.G’s ‘Juicy’ and Warrant’s hair metal anthem ‘Cherry Pie’, to mention a few. The juxtaposition of white-knuckled femme fury with music often considered overtly macho humorously subverts the sexist connotations of these songs, and encourages discussion about the nexus between women and popular culture.
Sensual and unrelenting in equal measure, Pussy Riot perfectly captures the indomitable spirit of rebellion. Armed with some of his most dizzyingly brazen works yet, Johnny Romeo’s latest series is a chaotic and glorious middle finger to the System.
Any enquires concerning Johnny Romeo’s PUSSY RIOT can be made directly through Muk Muk Fine Art (gallery@mukmuk.com) or by calling the gallery on +61 8 8953 6333.
Johnny Romeo
Victory Or Death
John Nicolay, Abraham Lincoln’s personal secretary once noted: ‘There are many pictures of Lincoln, but there is no portrait of him.’ Nicolay’s statement addresses the attempt of artists and photographers to capture the essence of Abraham Lincoln.
In his latest thrilling portrait, as part of the A PORTRAIT APART DEUX group show, Johnny Romeo seeks to distil and reinterpret the essence of Abraham Lincoln – as man, as leader, as true American icon. VICTORY OR DEATH is a towering testament to Lincoln, vividly wrought in Johnny Romeo’s bombastic Neo-Expressionist Pop style.
The piece masterfully examines the dualities of identity, creating a complex and nuanced insight in to the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln. Visually, Romeo’s portrait masterfully balances the extremes of celebration of solemnity, of elation and resignation.
Lincoln’s silhouette is rendered in sumptuous, dark lines, his gaze austere and enduring. The shroud of bluish grey enshrouding Lincoln’s right side pushes the picture plane, and lends the portrait a considerable sense of melancholic gravitas. In contrast, the gloriously jubilant pastel hues of Lincoln’s face and the nebulous pastures of green and yellow of the background imbue the portrait with an air of playful optimism and triumph. This harmonisation of disparate moods encapsulates Lincoln’s own fractured identity; a paean to the president who led his nation to victory in the Civil War, and yet declared himself ‘the most miserable man living’ and met a violent end at the hand of John Wilkes Booth.
With his signature panache for cultural witticisms, VICTORY OR DEATH is rife with eclectic references to history and rock’n’roll. The stencilled ‘16’ and ‘Kentucky Rain’ pay homage to Lincoln’s Southern upbringing and his place as the 16th US President. The scrawl of the title ‘Victory or Death’ is an allusion to a tattoo of Guns’N’Roses rocker Axl Rose, but acts as a powerful epithet to one of the most influential figures in history.
Johnny Romeo’s VICTORY OR DEATH is a bold and impassioned portrait of Abraham Lincoln. In seeking to capture the spirit of Lincoln, Romeo speaks to our own experiences of mortality and legacy.
Johnny Romeo’s VICTORY OR DEATH will be part of the A PORTRAIT APART DEUX Group Show @ Porter Contemporary in Chelsea, New York, USA.
Opening Night: Thursday February 27th @ 6:30 – 8:30pm.
Any enquires concerning Johnny Romeo’s VICTORY OR DEATH can be made directly through Porter Contemporary (jessica@portercontemporary.com / info@portercontemporary.com) or by calling the gallery on +1 212 696 7432.
Johnny Romeo featured in Northern Australia’s Territory Q Magazine (Issue 2 –January – March 2014) – Pages 72 – 73. www.territoryq.com.au
Johnny Romeo
PUSSY RIOT
New Paintings
On Friday 7th March Muk Muk Fine Art welcomes back to the Territory internationally acclaimed Neo-Expressionist Pop artist Johnny Romeo.
In his breathtaking latest series, “Pussy Riot”, Johnny Romeo pays homage to the rebellious spirit of Pussy Riot. A coruscating collision of comic book femme fatales, explosive colour arrangements and riotous energy, Romeo drags the audience kicking and screaming into an exhilarating and disorienting maelstrom of garish hues and punk-rock mayhem. Sensual and unrelenting in equal measure, “Pussy Riot” perfectly captures the indomitable spirit of rebellion in all its glory.
With Johnny Romeo in attendance, “Pussy Riot” opens at 6pm on Friday 7th March at Muk Muk Fine Art, 14 Lindsay Ave, Alice Springs. The exhibition will run until 3rd April where it will travel to Darwin to be exhibited.
For any enquiries gallery@mukmuk.com | www.mukmuk.com | 08 8953 6333
Johnny Romeo featured in Rock Candy Magazine – Issue 08 / Summer 2014 – Pages 25-29.
http://issuu.com/rockcandymagazine/docs/1
Johnny Romeo’s work DOVE LOVE (Marilyn Monroe) 2013, acrylic and oil on canvas 101cm x 101cm, donated by Dr Stanley Quek Chairman of Frasers Property Australia and Singapore Ireland Fund board member, has sold in Auction for an astounding $18,000.00 with proceeds going to the to the Singapore Ireland Fund Charity Organization!
Johnny Romeo to open the Australian Catholic University – Bachelor of Visual Arts & Design 2013 Graduating Exhibition @ McGlade Gallery – Gate 3, 25A Barker Road, Strathfield – Wednesday 13th November @ 6pm.
Johnny Romeo’s work featured in Polish Mega*Zine – Lost & Found # 6 – Pages 16-26.
http://issuu.com/lostandfoundmegazine/docs/2013_06_lostandfound_mega_zine_eng