JOHNNY ROMEO: THE SERIES
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo is proud to join forces again with beloved Pennsylvania-based brewery Zeroday Brewing Company for their electrifying new project, Johnny Romeo: The Series. The collaboration sees Australia’s leading Pop Artist lend his vibrant Technicolour Pop stylings to the designs of four unique, limited-edition tropical IPAs specially brewed for the series. A glorious meeting of kindred spirits, Johnny Romeo: The Series perfectly fuses together the celebrated Pop artist’s brash, neon-drenched Kitsch Pop with the deliciously adventurous attitude of Zeroday into a special fusion of craft beer and art not to be missed.
Johnny Romeo’s relationship with Zeroday goes back to 2017 and 2018 when they collaborated on the hugely successful Ned Kelly collection, a series of IPAs inspired by Australia’s most notorious bushranger. Zeroday is thrilled to be reuniting with one of the world’s leading voices in Pop Art to craft a loving homage to the innovative spirit of Harrisburg’s cultural and culinary community. Over the course of 4 weeks, Zeroday and Romeo will release one special, limited-edition IPA four-pack a week, each with their own bold, distinct label and bright, fruit flavour combination (‘Chaos’, ‘Bully Boy’, ‘Get Money’ and ‘Beast Mode’). The ‘Series Kickoff Event’ will happen on August 19 with the release of the first of the four beers as part of 3rd in the Burg, a monthly arts and culture festival that enlivens Harrisburg’s downtown and midtown and shows off the best the city has to offer.
For their latest joint venture, Australia’s King of Pop has adapted four of his iconic paintings into rollicking beer labels that perfectly compliment the effervescent blends of lactose, tangerine, and guava of Zeroday’s Tropical IPAs. Romeo’s colourfully off-beat mashups of cartoon animals and Pop culture bristles with a wide-eyed wonderment that resonates with Zeroday’s ethos of taking a pause to explore the side trails that life has to offer. The intoxicating brew of kaleidoscopic candy hues and larger-than-life animal designs, which range from primate daredevils to Bowie space felines, inject an irresistible element of Pop energy to the full-bodied, citrusy notes of Zeroday’s latest tantalizing tropical concoctions.
Bringing together the worlds of art and boutique brewing, each Johnny Romeo: The Series four-pack comes with an exclusive high-quality giclee print that corresponds to the beer label of the week. All prints for these grand release IPAs will be signed by Johnny Romeo himself, with lucky collectors being able to meet the artist during the ‘Series Kick Off’ event at Zeroday’s headquarters in Harrisburg. More than just a commemoration of Romeo and Zeroday’s latest collaboration, the accompanying print series taps into the giddy thrill of collecting funky new art and beers.
Bursting with bold, zesty flavours and exhilaratingly fun Kitsch Pop designs, Johnny Romeo: The Series is a spirited celebration of community, creativity, and craft brews that is sure to electrify the tastebuds of art aficionados and beer enthusiasts alike.
Johnny Romeo
IN BETWEEN DAYS
New Paintings
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo makes his thunderous return to 12 Gallery in Auckland with his latest collection of new original paintings, IN BETWEEN DAYS. The series sees Australia’s King of Pop contend with the philosophical questions of what it means to be stuck between society re-opening and the ongoing realities of the Corona pandemic, of what it means to wait while the world slowly returns to ‘normal’. Delivered with Romeo’s signature wit and Kitsch Pop bombast, the series bursts out of the gate with exuberant, candy-coloured hues, larger-than-life imagery, and undeniable swagger. IN BETWEEN DAYS is a rollicking celebration of living life to the fullest that urges us to embrace the exciting possibilities of redefining who we are and shaping our own futures, despite the uncertainties of waiting for better days.
Inspired by the beloved 1985 single from English goth rockers The Cure of the same name, IN BETWEEN DAYS offers a spirited exploration of what we do while we wait for the world to return to normal. The past two and a half years living through Covid have given us all plenty of time to take stock of our lives, to reassess what is important to us and reconsider what it is that defines us. For Johnny Romeo, this period of being ‘in between days’ offers us a hopeful time for radical reflection, an opportunity to exist outside of the usual madness of everyday life, to be bold, take chances and chase those dreams we once thought impossible. While we collectively wait for the world to return to some semblance of ‘pre-Corona’ ordinary, Romeo’s exhilarating latest series acts as a powerful call to action for us to never settle, but instead get our hustle on and change our lives for the better.
Romeo uses his unique blend of Kitsch Pop slickness, pithy Pop cultural references and amusingly absurdist humour to create an enthralling Technicolour Pop world of possibilities where chimpanzees become hedonistic Playboys, household hounds become fearsome pirates, and Pop royalty become actual royalty. Despite their disparate origins, each of these figures are bound together by an unswerving sense of self-belief and a commitment to defining themselves on their own terms. Word assemblages such as ‘Never Settle’, ‘New Arises’ and ‘Young Swag’ hit with the punchiness of arena-rock anthems and the braggadocio of hip hop bars, imbuing the works with a vibrant, life affirming energy that perfectly encapsulates the spirit of the series. Combined with the lively imagery of Romeo’s paintings, these word assemblages become powerful proclamations of self-determination that stand in direct opposition to the anxieties of living through a pandemic.
Two recurring themes that thread their way throughout IN BETWEEN DAYS are duality and contradiction. Romeo employs clever double entendres in his wordplay and mashups, as well as doubles and triplets, to examine the duality between wanting to return to the comforts of the pre-Covid past, while chasing our dreams in an unknown post-pandemic future. Like The Cure’s ‘In Between Days’, with its lyrical tension between ‘getting so old/I felt like I could die’ and ‘shivering like a child’, the series is full of contradictions that confront the fear of existing amidst major uncertainty. Such instability in times of waiting can lead to us to adopt duplicitous identities, where we protect ourselves from our truth by doing things we don’t mean. In Romeo’s eyes, the answer to this contemporary dilemma is to be true to ourselves, to be present and to embrace our full potential. The artist’s approach to duplicating portraits of stars such as Elizabeth Taylor and Prince, influenced by Andy Warhol’s Hollywood screen-prints, is therefore less a case of seeing double due to being torn in different directions, and more about amplifying icons whose sense of identity and self-confidence is so profound that it cannot be contained within just one person.
For a series inspired by waiting, IN BETWEEN DAYS is anything but patient. Australia’s leading culture jammer delivers some of his most impassioned and life-affirming Kitsch Pop works to date as he uses his art as a powerful reminder that we can shape the better days we wait for in the here and now.
Opening reception with Artist – Friday 10th June, 2022 | 5:30-8:30pm @12_gallery, Auckland.
12 Gallery | 9D Vernon Street, Auckland 1010, New Zealand | www.12gallery.com
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s IN BETWEEN DAYS works can be made directly through 12 Gallery (info@12gallery.com) or by calling the gallery on +64 21 501 911.
Exhibition Dates: June 10th – 30th, 2022.
Johnny Romeo
CHOOSE LIFE
New Large Paintings
What does it mean to be free in a world that has radically changed? Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo explores the notion of post-pandemic freedom with his signature Kitsch Pop bombast in his thunderous homecoming Sydney exhibition, CHOOSE LIFE. The series of new original paintings is a vibrant celebration bursting with exuberant colours, life-affirming humour and punchy imagery that captures the thrill of embracing change and the limitless possibilities of a new world. Coinciding with Sydney opening up again after almost two years of lockdowns and restrictions, the exhibition is a passionate call to arms to rise up to greatness and cling to hope as we enter the great unknown and learn to live with Corona.
CHOOSE LIFE is a veritable feast for the senses that sees Johnny Romeo at his most Poptimistic and righteously rambunctious. Vivacious explosions of candy-coloured hues coalesce with slick graphic imagery to create works that embrace the nourishing power of human connection and capture the sheer joy of being alive. Romeo’s motley crew of folklore outlaws, comic book femme fatales and hypnotic rockstars may come from all walks of the Pop spectrum, but they all exude the same magnetism and unquenchable self-belief needed to shape a better and brighter world. In a time saturated with misinformation and manufactured digital realities, the Kitsch Pop figures in the series strive to find realness and authenticity amongst a sea of fake news. More than just vapid popcorn escapism, Romeo uses humour and Pop culture both to make sense of the absurdity of life under lockdown, and dream of a tomorrow that is constantly in flux. The artist also uses his penchant for pithy observational satire to examine the quirky ways in which people have adapted to the quarantined life, and how this resourceful spirit of the hustle will play out in a world fundamentally changed by the Corona pandemic.
There is an irrepressible thirst for freedom and a desire to break free from the humdrum banality of everyday life that pulses through the works in CHOOSE LIFE. Johnny Romeo draws on these sentiments, experimenting with composition and playing with the pictorial plane to portray Tarantino mobster mavens and Kung Fu masters that threaten to tear through the very fabric of the canvass. Audiences are invited into the electrifying thrill of life as they are thrust into the flurry and fury of martial arts tournaments and the euphoria of the stage. Even when Romeo explores the quiet domesticity of life under lockdown, there is a barely contained energy to the paintings which imbues them with a rebellious edge. By creating works that break the fourth wall, Romeo ingeniously captures the tension and excitement of people bursting out of the indoor monotony of lockdown and embracing freedom in all its life-giving glory.
Music has long played a major influence in Johnny Romeo’s work. In CHOOSE LIFE, Romeo dials up his love for old school hip hop to eleven as he draws on the braggadocio and unapologetic swagger of classic rap to create life-affirming word assemblages that encourage us to take on life’s challenges head on. Punchy fragments of slang and street-hardened rap lyrics are given a healthy injection of Poptimism as Romeo transforms the lingua franca of hip hop into powerful statements of defiance against Corona. The sound of the revolution, however, doesn’t just emanate from the block parties of Brooklyn. Smoldering imprints of rock’n’roll’s blistering fuzz and anti-authoritarian attitude can be found throughout Romeo’s latest series, as he deftly weaves references to classic teenage rebels and slick rockabilly bad boys into his visual declarations of urban uprising.
The Australian King of Pop puts his distinct Kitsch Pop spin on the indomitable spirit and revolutionary zeal of classic hip hop and rock’n’roll to deliver his most anthemic works to date. Playing with the pictorial plane, Romeo’s larger than life paintings invite us to take risks and look at life from dazzling new perspectives. As we all begin to adjust to the new normal, Romeo’s latest series is a powerful statement of intent to dream big, chase freedom and Choose Life.
Opening reception with Artist: Friday 1st April, 2022 @ 6:30-8:00pm
Harvey Galleries, 515 Sydney Road, Seaforth, 2092, NSW, Australia
Ph: +61 2 9907 0595
RSVP to attend the opening of Johnny Romeo’s CHOOSE LIFE is essential.
RSVP to: rsvp@harveygalleries.com.au
Artist Floor Talk: Saturday 2nd April – 2-3pm
Any enquiries regarding Johnny Romeo’s CHOOSE LIFE can be made directly through Harvey Galleries (admin@harveygalleries.com.au) or by calling the gallery on +61 2 9907 0595
Exhibition Dates: 1st April – 12th April 2022.
Johnny Romeo
COLOSSAL YOUTH
Paintings
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo makes his thunderous return to Canberra with his latest retrospective, Colossal Youth. Expertly curated by Aarwun Gallery and Romeo, the survey is a dynamic collection of paintings taken from all over Australia and across the globe that provides an electrifying insight into the warped Technicolour visions of Australia’s King of Pop. In Romeo’s hyper-saturated Pop world, explosive bursts of candy-coloured hues collide with slick graphic imagery and Absurdist humour to create vivacious works that subvert our understanding of Pop culture icons and filters them through the artist’s distinctive Kitsch Pop lens.
Since erupting on to the Australian commercial art scene in the mid-2000s, Johnny Romeo has become one of the world’s leading voices in culture jamming and Pop Art, dazzling local and international audiences for over a decade with his bright, offbeat appropriations of Pop culture. Colossal Youth brings together a vibrant array of iconic works by Romeo that have been comprehensively hand-picked from Australian and international collections. Drawn mostly from the artist’s latter period, the paintings in the series capture Romeo at his most boisterous and unapologetically Pop as he skillfully melds together the slick, satirical bent of classic Pop Art with the psychedelic imagery of Surrealism. Each of the works highlight Romeo’s penchant for clever wordplay, pithy Pop culture references and his innate ability to contort Pop culture iconography into new and unexpected visons that speak to our experiences of living in a pure Pop reality.
Colossal Youth takes its name from the seminal 1983 album and title track of the same name by Welsh post-punk upstarts Young Marble Giants. Brimming with bright bubblegum colour arrangements and frenetic Pop imagery, the series perfectly encapsulates the spritely, synth driven music of Young Marble Giants while exploring Pop culture’s perpetual fascination with being forever young. There is a life-affirming sense of wide-eyed wonderment to the paintings which is reflected in Romeo’s imaginative fusion of sci-fi Surrealism, Cubist abstraction and quirky appropriations of celebrity iconography. Pop culture, for Romeo, is not just something we passively consume, but a vital channel through which we can transcend our everyday lives and reimagine the world with a renewed optimism that is only limited by our imagination. This sense of youthful possibility, of being a colossal youth, slyly evokes the Pop proclamations of 90’s boy band The Backstreet Boys with their insistent refrain of ‘every time we’re down / You can make it right / And that makes you larger than life.’
Evoking the spirit of Pop Art provocateurs such as Jeff Koons, Andy Warhol and Mel Ramos, Johnny Romeo boisterously toys with the celebrities and cartoon imagery of his childhood to offer colourful critiques of modern life that subvert our sense of the familiar. The jagged influence of Cubism in the artist’s work, in particular Picasso and the psychologically fraught works of George Condo, reflects the fragmented nature of modern life and the dizzying, kaleidoscopic experience of living in a world steeped in Pop culture. Surrealism also features prominently in the artist’s paintings as he blurs the lines between the everyday and the fantastical to confront the inherent absurdity of contemporary existence. Romeo masterfully synthesizes these influences into an intoxicating style that is undeniably his own, delivering visual Molotov cocktails that push Pop Art into thrilling new directions.
Colossal Youth is an electrifying retrospective that draws widely from Johnny Romeo’s illustrious career, offering audiences a neon-drenched glimpse into the mind of Australia’s leading culture jammer. Brimming with vivid colour explosions, larger-than-life Pop imagery, witty wordplay and a gleefully Absurdist sense of humour, Romeo’s Kitsch Pop works invite us to look beyond the humdrum banality of the ordinary, to dream big and embrace the colossal optimism of our youth.
Opening reception with Artist: Thursday 11th November 2021 | 6-8pm @ Aarwun Gallery
11 Federation Square, Gold Creek, Nicholls, ACT, Australia. Ph: +61 2 6230 2055.
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s COLOSSAL YOUTH 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: 11th November – 5th December 2021
Johnny Romeo
NEW CLEAR DAYS
New Paintings
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo makes his thrilling return to Linton & Kay Gallery in Perth with his latest series, NEW CLEAR DAYS. Australia’s King of Pop has crafted some of his most philosophical and audaciously Pop works to date as he explores a world caught between the isolation of Covid regulations and lockdowns, and the cautious promise of society re-opening as vaccines are rolled out. Bursting with life-affirming colour explosions, dark Absurdist humour and bombastic visual mashups that jam everything from hip hop and punk rock to Star Wars, the series holds up a neon-drenched mirror to our current collective experience, as reflected through Romeo’s inimitable Kitsch Pop style. NEW CLEAR DAYS is a vivacious and thought-provoking body of work that reflects on the tension between hope and hopelessness, and celebrates the powers of resilience and optimism to help us survive the global pandemic.
NEW CLEAR DAYS takes its name from the British New Wave band The Vapors’ 1980 album of the same name. Rife with clever wordplay, ‘New Clear Days’ is a cheeky pun on the phrase ‘Nuclear Days’, conjuring up contradictory images of sun-kissed celebrations alongside the latent threat of nuclear war. The title’s humorous but unsettling balance between cheeriness and existential angst perfectly captures our shared anxiety of living in a world amidst the Covid 19 pandemic. On the one hand, the rollout of vaccines has given us hope that we can soon push beyond the Covid bubble. However, the emergence of newer, more virulent strains has also left us with the fear that Corona, and the isolating lock downs that come with it, are here to stay for a while yet. Throughout the series, Johnny Romeo grapples with a key philosophical question: ‘what does it take to live in a world filled with so much uncertainty, under the shadow of something that affects our very existence?’
For Romeo, the answer lies in resilience and re-invention. From self-made Tiger Kings to pilot felines unafraid of flying headfirst into the unknown, NEW CLEAR DAYS is populated with uncompromising figures all determined to survive in a world turned upside down. The series drips with an irrepressible punk rock attitude and rock’n’roll swagger that speaks to the indomitable spirit of people who persevere and forge their own paths despite the challenges of the world around them. Rife with references to punk legends, iconic daredevils and gangster gals, the paintings are a celebration of overcoming adversity, of taking life by the horns and becoming the master of your own destiny. In many ways, NEW CLEAR DAYS is a tribute to the everyday heroes of the Corona pandemic, who have braved the frontlines or juggled the demands of homeschooling and working from home, adapting their lives in ways both banal and extraordinary in pursuit of a new dawn.
Central to resilience is the power of positivity, and the ability to keep our spirits up even when the world is a terrifying and uncertain place under the grips of a pandemic. Romeo injects a healthy dose of Poptimism into his latest body of work as he pushes his exuberant colour arrangements and knack for bright, eye-catching Pop imagery to electrifying new heights. Vibrant bursts of sugary, Technicolour hues lend the paintings an invigorating liveliness that energizes the audience to embrace life and always look on the bright side, especially during life’s darkest moments. In the neon-drenched environs of Romeo’s NEW CLEAR DAYS, optimism gives us the confidence to overcome trauma and reinvent, to find home when we are lost, and most impressively, to love with the unconditional Southern candor of Dolly Parton.
With NEW CLEAR DAYS, Australia’s leading culture jammer has delivered an empowering statement on the importance of self-belief and reinventing yourself to adapt to life’s challenges. Brimming with exhilarating imagery and intense colour arrangements, Johnny Romeo’s latest series is a clarion call for resilience and positivity as we overcome the existential dread of nuclear days in pursuit of the brightness of New Clear Days.
Opening reception: Thursday 19th August 2021 | 6-8pm @ Linton & Kay Galleries, Subiaco Gallery / 299 Railway Road (Corner Nicholson Rd) Subiaco WA | +61 8 9388 3300
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s NEW CLEAR DAYS can be made directly through Linton & Kay Galleries (subiaco@lintonandkay.com.au) or by calling the gallery on +61 8 9388 3300 (Subiaco) / +61 8 6465 4314 (West Perth)
lintonandkay.com.au
RSVP for Opening Night is essential.
RSVP to: subiaco@lintonandkay.com.au
Email for a catalogue to: subiaco@lintonandkay.com.au
Exhibition Dates: 14th August – 5th September 2021.
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.
Johnny Romeo
THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE MOON
New Paintings
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo makes his highly anticipated hometown return to Sydney with his exhilarating new series, THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE MOON. Amidst the darkness and collective anxiety that has come to characterize pandemic life in 2020, Romeo’s latest series is an invigorating shot of Technicolour Poptimism that urges us to reclaim the good times, overcome adversity and embrace life to the fullest. Vibrant bursts of colour, slick tongue-in-cheek imagery and witty wordplay all collide into a thrilling collection of paintings that confronts our mortality head on with life-affirming zeal, Pop irreverence and an indomitable sense of hope.
Renowned for his bold graphic style, Romeo’s latest works burst from the canvass with an electrifying energy that embraces the visceral thrill and vibrance of life. The artist’s penchant for fusing eclectic imagery, ranging from high fashion to rock’n’roll iconography and animal symbolism, masterfully captures the larger-than-life vivacity of Pop culture and its ability to collectively transport us to places beyond the banality and adversity of our quarantined existence. Romeo’s use of colour further expresses this point, as he injects his paintings with a captivating Technicolour exuberance that perfectly distills life in all its excitement and grandeur. Swells of punchy, candy-coloured hues explode across each canvass with intoxicating force, drawing the audience into Romeo’s neon-drenched Poptimist visions.
A cheeky play on Pink Floyd’s 1973 space-rock opus ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’, the title of Romeo’s latest series is a rambunctious yet impassioned call for hope and positivity in dark and uncertain times. In the age of Corona, Pop culture and art are not just trivial commodities for our consumption and enjoyment, but vital lifelines through which we can tackle the challenges of our everyday reality while dreaming of a better tomorrow.
For Romeo, the promise of escapism and ‘dreaming big’ inherent in Pop culture is a powerful tool for coping and finding meaning in a world turned upside down by the Corona crisis. There is a palpable sense of Poptimism and hopefulness that radiates throughout THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE MOON, whether it be through a depiction of Dorothy and Toto from the Wizard of Oz decked out in space-age helmets finding happiness during a pandemic, or a tiger learning to ride the wave uncertainty and becoming the master of its own destiny. Even when Romeo flirts with the macabre, such as his portrayal of skulls or his allusion to Johnny Cash’s funereal ‘man in black’, there is a triumphant feeling of resilience and a steadfast belief that we can overcome and live life to the fullest.
Humour has long played a vital role in Johnny Romeo’s warped visions of contemporary life and Pop culture. In his latest series, however, humour is more than just a vehicle to skewer and satirise our media-obsessed culture, but an important mechanism through which we can laugh, feel, and make sense of a quarantined world where the Absurd has become the norm. Using his signature mastery of wordplay and knack for pithy cultural commentary, Romeo weaves together gleefully surreal paintings that mash together everything from iconic skateboard brands to intergalactic heroes filtered through the slick tracksuits of vintage New York hip hop. In doing so, the artist’s paintings act as potent reminders to have fun and find a reason to smile even when the world seems to be teetering on the brink of madness.
THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE MOON sees Johnny Romeo push his inimitable Kitsch Pop style to thrilling new heights as he crafts his most slickly bombastic, unapologetically Pop works to date. In a year plagued with fear and uncertainty, Australia’s King of Pop delivers a powerful call to action to never give up on our dreams and our pursuit of the sunny side of the moon, no matter the odds.
Please join us for the Facebook Live Opening: 6:30pm Friday 4th December – https://www.facebook.com/harveygalleriesmosman/live/
Artist Floor Talk: Saturday 5th December – 1-3pm
Harvey Galleries / Mosman 842 Military Road, Mosman 2088 NSW Australia.
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE MOON can be made directly through Harvey Galleries (service@harveygalleries.com.au) or by calling the gallery on +61 2 9907 0595
Exhibition Dates: 4th December – 15th December 2020.
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.
Johnny Romeo
BURN DOWN THE DISCO
New Paintings
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo storms into 2020 with his incendiary new series BURN DOWN THE DISCO. Romeo’s latest exhibition is an electrifying romp through the lawless wastelands of Pop culture and marks the artist’s triumphant return to Perth since his widely celebrated show Rock Is Dead in 2018. A revolutionary call to arms amidst the chaos of contemporary life, the series showcases Australia’s King of Pop at his most provocative and confrontational, as he injects a healthy dose of venom into his inimitable Kitsch Pop style. BURN DOWN THE DISCO is a thrilling and fiendishly fun homage to the mavericks, misfits, maulers and madmen who laugh in the face of danger as they build a new dawn upon the ashes of the disco inferno.
Australia’s leading Pop artist delivers a veritable Technicolour roller-coaster of gloriously hyper-Kitsch imagery and dystopian Pop menace that sees Johnny Romeo craft his most visually striking works to date. Teeming with an unbridled ferocity and an irrepressible Pop slickness, BURN DOWN THE DISCO transports audiences on a visceral and emotionally charged deep dive into the twisted rabbit hole of Pop culture. Colours virtually burst from the canvas with the subtlety of a molotov cocktail, as Romeo employs a fiery arsenal of acid-tinged neon colours and sugar pastel hues to imbue his paintings with a complex and volatile emotional gravitas.
BURN DOWN THE DISCO bristles with a raw, primal energy that courses through each of its works like shots of pure adrenaline. Animals, who feature heavily in the series, are depicted as larger-than-life embodiments of freedom and lawlessness, as Johnny Romeo cheekily transforms owls into intergalactic hip hop moguls and grizzly bears into neon-drenched surfers conquering the great waves of the Kitsch Pop wasteland. Romeo’s fascination with the animal kingdom, in particular the motif of the tiger, strikes at the heart of his latest body of work. Referenced throughout the series, the tiger acts as a potent symbol of legacy, resilience and survival, a creature untethered by limitations or possibilities that calls on the audience to ‘embrace the beast within’.
Inspired by The Smiths’ iconic 1986 indie rock single ‘Panic’, BURN DOWN THE DISCO is characterised by a revolutionary desire to be bold and relentless, to dismantle outdated traditions by forging new paths into the unknown. Romeo’s slick, Kitsch Pop stylings take on a decidedly nihilistic turn in his latest series, as the artist creates imposing renditions of infamous comic book villains, historical anti-heroes and notorious rulers such as Ned Kelly, The Joker and Napoleon Bonaparte. Dripping with an undeniable attitude, the artist portrays these figures as pistol-toting cowboys, cosmic bushrangers and tribal tattooed generals hell-bent on ‘kicking down their idols’ and making their mark in the world by any means possible. Inspired by the films of Martin Scorsese, the feverish intensity and bare-knuckled grit with which Romeo approaches these works poignantly captures the darker sides of ambition and toxic masculinity, where the desire to take on the world degenerates into senseless violence and destruction.
Much like the music of The Smiths, however, Johnny Romeo masterfully tempers the caustic and confrontational elements of his new series with a delightfully quirky and off-beat sense of humour that rails against the staid complacency of contemporary Pop culture. Rock’n’roll lyrics, gangster rap bars, Hollywood film names and Internet memes all take on a new life in BURN DOWN THE DISCO, as the artist pushes his signature blend of vibrant imagery and savvy word assemblages to deliciously Absurdist heights. Romeo drags vintage Pop culture and historical imagery kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, using juxtaposition, humour and razor-sharp wordplay to provide pithy commentary on contemporary issues ranging from meme culture, to nationalism and mental health.
BURN DOWN THE DISCO is a knockout series from Australia’s King of Pop that bursts at the seams with Johnny Romeo’s most explosive colour arrangements, fiendishly slick linework and biting satirical observations to date. Taking his signature Pop stylings to gloriously Kitsch and unflinchingly vicious extremes, Romeo’s latest series is a celebration and critique of our primal and animalistic nature, of our desire to set the dancefloor ablaze and start anew in a savagely thrilling Technicolour world where the only law is the law of the wild.
Opening reception with Artist: Thursday 26th March 2020 | 6-8pm @ Linton & Kay Galleries, Subiaco Gallery / 299 Railway Road (Corner Nicholson Rd) Subiaco WA | +61 8 9388 3300
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s BURN DOWN THE DISCO can be made directly through Linton & Kay Galleries (subiaco@lintonandkay.com.au) or by calling the gallery on +61 8 9388 3300
lintonandkay.com.au
RSVP for Opening Night is essential.
RSVP to: subiaco@lintonandkay.com.au
Email for a catalogue to: subiaco@lintonandkay.com.au
Exhibition Dates: 21st March – 12th April 12th, 2020.
Johnny Romeo
TO THE EXTREME
New Paintings
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo makes his triumphant return to Sydney with his electrifying new series TO THE EXTREME. Following on from his celebrated and sold-out 2018 Sydney show The Last Days of Disco, Australia’s leading culture jammer and Pop artist delivers an exhilarating collection of new original works that pushes the Pop envelope and celebrates the visionary spirit of those who dare to dream and stand out from the pack. The series is a gloriously playful sugar rush through Romeo’s warped Pop visions of the modern world that sees Australia’s King of Pop deliver his most confident and unapologetically Pop works to date.
Drawing its title from Vanilla Ice’s 1989 debut album of the same name, TO THE EXTREME ramps up everything that we have come to expect from Romeo’s inimitable Kitsch Pop style and pushes it to the next level. Colours leap from the canvass with the visual impact of a sun-kissed sucker punch, as the artist masterfully plunders and re-appropriates iconic imagery from Pop culture and art history to create dazzling works that speak to the absurdity of our contemporary experience. Romeo takes his penchant for witty irreverence and tongue-in-cheek humour to joyously absurd peaks, as he creates a no-holds barred Technicolour block party where eccentric artistic geniuses, jazz songbirds and rockstar felines prance and prowl through the dance floor of Pop culture.
For Johnny Romeo, ‘to the extreme’ is a powerful statement of intent, a maxim of radical self-confidence where visionaries and risk-takers push themselves to the limit to make their dreams a reality. There is an irrepressible sense of hopefulness and optimism that courses throughout each of the works in the series, and in particular through the artist’s cheeky depiction of animals. TO THE EXTREME hosts a veritable menagerie of bombastic beasts who have all risen above their limitations to embrace their true callings. In Romeo’s delightfully warped Kitsch Pop world, friendly guard dogs are hilariously transformed into rap moguls, humble rodents become hip-hoppin’ superheroes, and apes take on the outrageous personas of hedonistic Las Vegas party animals.
The thrilling and life-affirming confidence that lies at the conceptual core of TO THE EXTREME is reflected with immense gusto through the series’ slick graphic imagery and powerful use of colour. Each work drips with undeniable swagger, as concentrated bursts of Technicolour hues inject a vibrant liveliness to Romeo’s Kitsch Pop visions that perfectly distills the larger-than-life ambition and relentless drive of dreamers charging through life at full steam. Bursting with taut, refined line-work, Romeo’s Kitsch Pop renditions of Pop culture icons and celebrity creatures dominate his canvasses with a magnetic presence that showcase the artist at his most commanding and defiantly Pop.
Living life to the extreme often means embracing the absurdities of life head on, a sentiment which Johnny Romeo captures with a gleefully anarchic sense of humour in his latest series. Renowned for his razor sharp wit and knack for clever wordplay, Romeo satirises the chaos of modern life through skilfully weaving together seemingly disparate Pop culture and art history references, ranging from Baroque art and silent films to hip hop, goth and the urban organic food movement. The frenetic interplay between imagery and text reflects the immense influence of music on the artist’s work, and recalls both the improvisational looseness of free jazz and the slick, rhythmic punchiness of hip hop.
A thrilling homage to the world’s dreamers and daredevils, the latest series from Australia’s King of Pop takes his signature blend of vibrant colour arrangements, Absurdist humour and slick Pop imagery to breathtaking new heights as he pushes his inimitable Kitsch Pop style to the extreme. In the booming, neon-drenched Pop block party that is Johnny Romeo’s TO THE EXTREME, everyone is free to be themselves and anything goes.
RSVP to attend the opening of Johnny Romeo’s TO THE EXTREME is essential.
RSVP to: rsvp@harveygalleries.com.au
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s TO THE EXTREME can be made directly through Harvey Galleries (admin@harveygalleries.com.au) or by calling the gallery on +61 2 9968 2153
Exhibition Dates: 6th December – 15th December 2019.