Johnny Romeo
ROCKA ROLLA
Paintings
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo makes his thunderous return to Canberra with his electrifying new retrospective, ROCKA ROLLA. The survey, expertly curated by Aarwun Gallery, brings together an array of iconic Romeo paintings from Australian and international collections spanning the artist’s illustrious decade-plus career. ROCKA ROLLA delivers an eclectic selection of visual gems that recalls the giddy excitement of an old-school mix tape while showcasing Johnny Romeo as one of the world’s leading culture jammers. Bombastic and unapologetically irreverent, Romeo’s fusion of off-beat humour, sly cultural references and surreal imagery reconfigures our everyday Pop reality into vibrant slices of Kitsch Pop brilliance.
Erupting on to the Australian commercial art scene in 2007, Johnny Romeo is a veritable tour de force in the international art world who has dazzled audiences around the globe with his delightfully quirky visions of Pop culture. ROCKA ROLLA offers audiences a brilliant insight into the evolution of Australia’s leading Pop artist, exhibiting iconic Romeo paintings that have been extensively sourced from local and international collections. From the grungy, stream-of-consciousness graffiti punk of his earlier period to the sleek, neon-drenched Technicolour Pop of his later work, the retrospective is a testament to Romeo’s masterful ability to push the envelope of Pop Art while continuing to carve out his inimitable Neo-Expressionist Pop style.
Taking its title from the debut album of iconic heavy metal masters Judas Priest, ROCKA ROLLA captures the glorious Technicolour maximalism that has made Johnny Romeo one of the most vital voices in contemporary Pop Art. The cheeky reference to the bruising purveyors of British Steel reflects the exhilarating dynamism of Johnny Romeo’s paintings, which roar with the fiery energy and fist-pumping attitude of heavy metal anthems. Romeo’s signature blend of frenetic imagery, explosive Technicolour arrangements and rambunctious word assemblages create dazzling visions of a hyper-saturated Pop world where rampant advertising and the cult of celebrity are the new rock’n’roll.
As a world-renowned culture jammer, Johnny Romeo gleefully plunders the canon of Pop culture to re-envisage classic Pop icons in humorous and refreshing new ways. The artist draws from the full spectrum of Pop culture, sampling everything from comic book heroes and classic pin-up girls, to rock’n’roll legends and Hollywood heartthrobs, and turning them on their head. Romeo toys with our sense of nostalgia and collective memory, ingeniously using the pulp fiction and cult imagery of the past to subvert our preconceptions of Pop culture and empower us to see the world in an exhilaratingly different light.
Johnny Romeo’s rambunctious blend of exuberant imagery and textual witticisms skewers the zany absurdity of modern life and ruptures our sense of the familiar within Pop culture. Evoking the spirit of Pop Art provocateurs like Jeff Koons and Mel Ramos, Romeo craftily melds the rhythmic punchiness of hip hop and rock’n’roll lyrics to the catchy jargon of advertising to inject new life into Pop culture icons such as Freddie Mercury and Betty Boop.
ROCKA ROLLA is a thrilling retrospective of visual gems old and new that draws deep from Johnny Romeo’s celebrated career as a world-leading Pop auteur. Brimming with neon-drenched Technicolour explosions, bold imagery and razor-sharp wit, the series offers audiences a kaleidoscopic trip through the creative mind of Australia’s King of Pop.
Opening reception with Artist: Friday 20th September 2019 | 6-8pm @ Aarwun Gallery
11 Federation Square, Gold Creek, Nicholls, ACT, Australia. Ph: +61 2 6230 2055
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s ROCKA ROLLA 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: 20th September – 6th October 2019
Johnny Romeo
MARQUEE MOON
New Paintings
July 14th, 1977. A freak storm has ripped through New York, cutting out all power and plunging the city into darkness. Chaos reigns the streets, as violence, looting and arson erupt throughout a sweltering New York teetering on the edge of destruction.
Amidst this dramatic backdrop, internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo makes his fiery return to Tasmania with his thrilling new exhibition, MARQUEE MOON. Following celebrated and sell out shows in New York, Sydney, the Gold Coast and Auckland in late 2018 and early 2019, Australia’s leading culture jammer delivers an incendiary collection of new original paintings that plunges headfirst into the mayhem and restless energy of the infamous 1977 New York Blackouts. The series showcases Romeo’s inimitable Kitsch Pop style at its most confident and vivacious, as bursts of surreal imagery and vibrant colour arrangements gloriously collide in an explosive celebration of the dreamers who dare to follow their calling amidst a city on the brink or ruin.
MARQUEE MOON takes its name from the towering 1977 debut record from renowned American art-punks Television. The album’s sprawling 10-minute centrepiece ‘Marquee Moon’, in particular, acts as the conceptual backbone to Romeo’s latest series. Despite being released months before the New York Blackouts, lead singer Tom Verlaine’s lyrical exploration of a man’s journey from the darkness of self-doubt to the hopefulness of following his dreams powerfully captures both the madness that engulfed New York City in 1977, and the promise of rebirth that lay in its wake. The ‘marquee moon’, as the single source of light on New York’s darkest night, becomes a central metaphor within Romeo’s series for taking control of your life, radically embracing freedom and creating meaning in a crazy world.
The series bristles with an irrepressible, primal energy that evokes the harsh summer heat and civil unrest that threatened to tear apart the very fabric of New York City. Romeo cheekily re-envisions the world of the 1977 NYC Blackouts as a neon-drenched concrete jungle, where the danger of lawlessness is tinged with the promise of new beginnings. Technicolour beasts parading as rock stars and superheroes rub shoulders with Pop culture icons as they swagger through the mean streets of the Big Apple, all eager to make something of themselves among the rotten core of an urban wasteland. Tom Verlaine’s insistent yelp of ‘the kiss of death, the embrace of life’ in the song ‘Marquee Moon’ is transformed into a powerful statement of intent within the series, a point captured masterfully through Romeo’s vibrant colour arrangements and bold, graphic imagery.
Despite the grungy, urban setting of the New York blackouts, the series urges audiences to see the ‘marquee moon’ as a symbol for dreaming, a clarion call to look up to the heavens and rise above the mayhem of the world below. Classic science fiction and comic book imagery are cleverly weaved throughout the series, creating a Technicolour lunar landscape where the freedom to dream is found in the limitless possibilities of space and flight. The artist masterfully translates the soaring, celestial melodies and spacey ruminations of Television’s ‘Marquee Moon’ into electrifying odes to escapism that are charged with a palpable sense of urgency.
Johnny Romeo’s penchant for inspired, eclectic Pop culture references is taken to soaring new heights in MARQUEE MOON, with the artist employing his signature razor-sharp wit and spirited wordplay to create a visual love-letter to the year 1977. Bold word assemblages rife with hilarious double-entendres cascade off each canvass, calling to mind iconic music and film from 1977 ranging from the hard rock swagger of KISS and Ram Jam, to the seductive new wave of Blondie and the intergalactic adventurousness of Star Wars. The focus on 1977 cleverly emphasizes the vital role that the New York Blackouts had on shaping the future of Pop culture and its role in both galvanizing punk rock as a movement and giving birth to hip hop.
MARQUEE MOON is a bombastic celebration of the renegades and visionaries who dare to find meaning in chaos, and strive to forge new beginnings amongst the ruins of a world in crisis. Brimming with offbeat humour, explosive colour arrangements, and graphic gusto, the series sees Australia’s King of Pop re-envision the urban decay of the 1977 New York Blackouts as a feverishly frenetic Technicolour wasteland, where the only hope for redemption can be found under the glow of the Marquee Moon.
Opening reception with Artist – Friday 2nd August, 2019 | 5:30-7:30pm at Penny Contemporary,
187 Liverpool Street, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia | www.pennycontemporary.com.au
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s MARQUEE MOON can be made directly through Penny Contemporary (info@pennycontemporary.com.au) or by calling the gallery on +61 3 6231 5655 or Sonia on +61 438 292 673
Exhibition Dates: August 2nd – 26th 2019.
Johnny Romeo
IN A MOONAGE DAYDREAM
New Paintings
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo skyrockets back to New Zealand with his electrifying series, IN A MOONAGE DAYDREAM. The dynamic collection of new works marks Romeo’s thrilling return to New Zealand following his critically renowned and sold-out exhibition ‘The Arthouse Series’ at Auckland’s 12 Gallery in 2017. Brimming with larger-than-life colour arrangements and bombastic, tongue-in-cheek imagery, the series vibrantly celebrates the pioneers and radicals who push the limits of what is possible, and dare to dream. IN A MOONAGE DAYDREAM is a visual feast for the senses that sees Australia’s leading Pop artist and culture jammer take his inimitable Kitsch Pop style to cosmic new heights as he explores what it means to make dreams a reality.
The moon plays a central role within the series, acting as an elevated visual symbol that signals a time for dreaming. As the only celestial body outside of Earth that humanity has been able to walk on, the moon acts as a conceptual focal point for the series, highlighting the power of aiming heavenwards and overcoming adversity to achieve the impossible. Johnny Romeo cleverly acknowledges the significance of the moon by opening the exhibition on Friday 21 June, the date of the Winter Solstice in the Southern hemisphere. Known for the being the longest night of the year, Romeo has used this opportunity to allow his audiences to dream a little longer in their own moonage reverie.
For Johnny Romeo, the ‘moonage daydream’ is a state of mind, a space for electrified, far-out ideas where visionaries courageously carve their own paths through the exhilarating terrain of the unknown. The series is filled to the brim with allusions to speed, space and elevation, as Pop culture and historical luminaries are ingeniously transformed into pioneering early 20th Century aviators, rambunctious racecar prodigies and galactic emperors. In Romeo’s Technicolour daydream, speed and movement are king, acting as potent symbols for ambition, where boundaries and limitations are gleefully ruptured in a haze of smoke, screeching tyres, and rocket fuel.
This sense of triumph and perpetual forward motion is captured with undeniable flair in the series, with Johnny Romeo delivering some his most brash and confident works to date. Concentrated bursts of colour explode off the canvass with the sugary rush of a psychedelic fever dream, imbuing the works with a trippy effervescence that evokes fantasies of neon-drenched lunar landscapes. Dripping with an undeniable swagger, Romeo’s latest collection of paintings possess an invigorating graphic gusto that visually distills the fierce ambition and fiery bravado of stars and trailblazers hell-bent on glory.
An eclectic array of musical and cultural references abound throughout IN A MOONAGE DAYDREAM. The series draws its title from ‘Moonage Daydream’, a lesser-known cut from David Bowie’s classic 1972 album ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust’. Inspired by the song’s absurdist space age
lyricism and diverse instrumental palette, the artist gleefully mashes together diverse references ranging from bebop jazz and classic rock, to classic sci-fi, American gothic literature and Japanese anime, and reconfigures them into deliciously warped Neo-Expressionist Pop visions. Romeo injects each painting with his signature blend of offbeat humour and razor-sharp wit, masterfully fusing imagery and word assemblages to conjure the sensory overload of acid-soaked lucid dreams.
IN A MOONAGE DAYDREAM is a thrilling homage to the radicals and adventurers who fearlessly push the boundaries, reach for the stars, and dare to dream. Fusing psychedelic fields of colour, brash imagery and delightfully absurdist humour with a need for speed, Australia’s King of Pop has crafted a scintillating Kitsch-Pop experience that transports audiences across the candy-coated expanses of the Pop universe and invites them to get lost in their own moonage daydream.
Opening reception with Artist – Friday 21st June, 2019 | 6-9pm @12_gallery, Auckland.
12 Gallery | 9D Vernon Street, Auckland 1010, New Zealand | www.12gallery.com
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s IN A MOONAGE DAYDREAM works can be made directly through 12 Gallery (info@12gallery.com) or by calling the gallery on +64 21 501 911.
Exhibition Dates: June 21st – July 12th, 2019.
Johnny Romeo
DREAM-LAND
New Paintings
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo makes his triumphant return to the Gold Coast with his hypnotic new exhibition, DREAM-LAND. Fresh off the back of critically acclaimed and sold out shows in New York and Sydney in late 2018, Romeo takes a deep dive into the realm of the subconscious to create a mind altering, kaleidoscopic new series of works that explores Surrealism’s fascination with dreams. The series is a thrilling homage to the work of renowned Surrealist Rene Magritte that has been masterfully curated by Romeo and Terri Lew of 19 Karen Contemporary Artspace. Tearing through the barriers between the real and the imaginary like a neon-drenched fever dream, DREAM-LAND delivers electrifying Kitsch Pop renditions of iconic Magritte works that showcase Australia’s King of Pop at his most psychedelic and sublime.
Surrealism has long been a major influence on Johnny Romeo’s gleefully Absurdist take on Pop Art. However, in DREAM-LAND, Romeo takes his penchant for Surrealist imagery to dazzling new heights, transforming his inimitable Neo-Expressionist Pop stylings into engrossing dreamscapes that blur the lines between the real and the surreal. Taking its title from Edgar Allan Poe’s 1844 poem ‘Dream-Land’, the series is a psychotropic journey through the subconscious that subverts familiar elements, such as Pop culture icons and everyday objects, and re-envisages them in bold, incongruous ways that challenge our perceptions of reality. Romeo’s signature Technicolour palette takes on an electrifyingly hallucinatory feel, as concentrated bursts of candy coloured hues explode off the canvass with the feverish intensity of a lucid dream.
Johnny Romeo masterfully draws on the works of Rene Magritte, appropriating the artist’s unsettling inventory of dream imagery as a means of fusing the psychological introspection of Surrealism with the eye-popping brashness of the Pop world. Recurring motifs found throughout Magritte’s work are given a refreshingly contemporary Kitsch Pop spin throughout DREAM-LAND, as Romeo filters iconic symbols such as the mysterious suited man, apples, bowler hats and mirrors through his delightfully warped Pop sensibilities. Romeo has created his most compositionally sophisticated paintings to date, using Magritte’s works as the basis for pushing his arrangements forward in a tighter, more representational direction without sacrificing the punk-edge that he has become known for.
DREAM-LAND is, in many ways, a celebration of real-life dream-weavers and modern day Surrealists within Pop culture. Bringing together a roster of icons across the spectrum of art, music and fashion, the series examines the way in which visionaries such as Yayoi Kusama and Karl Lagerfeld altered the everyday into the extraordinary by redefining the limits of our perceptible reality. For Romeo, these modern alchemists, like the Surrealists, pushed the boundaries of creativity and invited their audience to question what lies beyond the surface of what we can see, to break free from the boundaries of the visible world and breathe life into our dreams.
Music references abound throughout DREAM-LAND, as Johnny Romeo showcases his uncanny knack for visually distilling eclectic sounds into his works. Characterised by their taut, sleek imagery and otherworldly colour palette, the paintings in the series evoke the dreamy melodies of classic 1960’s guitar pop and the swirling, hypnotic fuzz of psych rock to create a perfect harmony between Surrealism and Pop. Lyrics strewn from artists such as the Sex Pistols, Jeff Buckley, Lou Reed, and in particular, the iconic Pop-inflected psychedelia of The Beatles, are chopped and re-interpreted through Romeo’s gleefully irreverent Kitsch Pop filter, cascading across the works like the searing vestiges of a long forgotten dream.
DREAM-LAND is a visual feast for the senses that invites audiences to take a plunge down the rabbit hole of Johnny Romeo’s surreal Pop visions. An intoxicating brew of Surrealist imagery, mind-bending colour arrangements and pulsating Pop slickness, the series sees Australia’s leading Pop artist journey across the vast expanses of the subconscious to create his very own DREAM-LAND.
Opening Night: Saturday 25th May, 2019 with an intimate dinner in the gallery. This exclusive event will be invitation only for a strictly limited number of people. Open to the general public on Tuesday 28th May.
19 Karen | 19 Karen Avenue, Mermaid Beach QLD, Australia | www.19karen.com.au
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s DREAM-LAND opening night or works can be made directly through 19Karen (info@19karen.com.au) or by calling the gallery on +61 7 5554 5019 or Terri on +61 407 753 958.
Exhibition Dates: May 25th, 2019 – June 22nd, 2019.
Johnny Romeo
THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO
New Paintings
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop Artist Johnny Romeo makes his thunderous return to Sydney with his exhilarating new series, THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO. Coming off the back of a sell-out exhibition at the Australian Consulate-General in New York and rapturously received shows in Perth and Canberra, Australia’s King of Pop delivers a knockout body of works that raises the bar for Neo-Expressionist Pop on the global stage. THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO is an electrifying trip down the kaleidoscopic rabbit hole of Pop culture, where the exuberant kitschness of Pop is fused with the thrill of the Absurd to capture a world where the old order is dead, and the possibilities of the new are limitless.
Inspired by the restless energy and unbridled creative potential of New York at the end of the 1970s, the title THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO is a colourful celebration of new dawns. The end of disco for Romeo is not so much a literal period or musical style, but rather something symbolic of a proverbial changing of the guard – the end of the old and the birth of the new. There is a tantalising irreverence to Johnny Romeo’s latest paintings, a desire to push his Technicolour Pop visions into edgy new terrains that mirror the exhilarating lawlessness of punk and hip hop in their early days, as they emerged from the ashes of the discotheque. Brimming with an undeniable swagger, the series cheekily contorts familiar popular imagery into brash, refreshingly original compositions that envision a future of Pop culture drenched in brilliant Technicolour.
At the same time, many of the paintings in THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO reflect Johnny Romeo’s fascination with art history. Amidst the artist’s tongue-in-cheek renditions of icons such as Michael Jackson, Winston Churchill and KISS lays a cornucopia of references to major artists and historic art movements, ranging from Christian Orthodox hagiography, to Impressionism and Dadaism. Romeo’s visual sampling and remixing of works by art luminaries such as Paul Cézanne and René Magritte represents a thrilling new direction for the artist, as he daringly blurs the lines between ‘high brow’ and ‘low brow’ culture, and what is considered sacred and kitsch.
Surrealism, in particular, has been hugely influential in the development of the series. Romeo amps up the Absurdist bent of his works with gleeful abandon, transforming beloved world leaders into animals, sanctifying pop stars and even breaking through the visual fourth wall through the rap symbology of Kendrick Lamar. Throughout THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO, the psychotropic spirit of Surrealism is tempered with Romeo’s uncompromisingly vibrant take on Pop Art, resulting in some of his most visually arresting works to date. The artist seamlessly melds Dali-esque psychedelia with the seductive pin-up imagery of the late, great Pop provocateur Mel Ramos, highlighting the playful fluidity and inherent absurdity of Pop culture with his signature dose of visual bombast and razor sharp wit.
The series showcases Romeo’s ingenious ability to fuse eclectic musical influences into his work. Evoking the heady compositions of prog rock and the free-form looseness of improvisational jazz, the paintings in the series ebb and flow like tracks in a concept record, connected through a series of visual motifs and cheeky double-entendres. A master of creating visual hooks, Romeo also grounds his work with eye-popping colour arrangements and taut, rhythmic text passages that recall the invigorating rush of punk and the bone-rattling beats of hip hop as they soundtrack disco’s twilight. Balancing the tight sheen of popular music with the intuitive impulses of jazz, the artist has crafted his most confident and accomplished paintings yet.
THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO is a powerful celebration of new dawns rising from the ashes of the old world. Bursting with sumptuous explosions of colour, searing satire and a delightfully Absurdist edge, the series sees Australia’s leading Pop artist take his inimitable fusion of punk energy and Kitsch Pop slickness to soaring new heights as he ushers in the incendiary last days of disco.
Opening reception with Artist: Friday 7th December 2018 @ 6:30-8:00pm
Harvey Galleries, 842 Military Road, Mosman, NSW 2088, Australia.
Ph: +61 2 9968 2153
RSVP to attend the opening of Johnny Romeo’s THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO is essential.
RSVP to: rsvp@harveygalleries.com.au
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO can be made directly through Harvey Galleries (admin@harveygalleries.com.au) or by calling the gallery on +61 2 9968 2153
Exhibition Dates: 7th December – 16th December 2018.
Johnny Romeo
NEW AMERICANA
New Paintings
The Australian Consulate-General, New York, in association with Anala Art Advisory, is proud to present NEW AMERICANA, the thrilling new series from internationally acclaimed Australian Pop artist Johnny Romeo. Exhibiting at the prestigious headquarters of the Australian Consulate-General in the heart of Manhattan, Australia’s King of Pop delivers a dazzling homage to classic American iconography that captures the larger-than-life spirit of America in brilliant Technicolour. To celebrate the major opening of the show, Pennsylvania-based craft-beer specialists Zeroday Brewing Company will be serving their one-of-a-kind Johnny Romeo IPA beer, alongside dynamic Ned Kelly prints created by the artist. NEW AMERICANA is an infectiously fun Kitsch Pop romp through American culture from the world-renowned culture jammer that fuses vibrant absurdist imagery with pithy cultural commentary to colourfully re-envision American icons in bold and surprising ways.
Americana has always beaten at the heart of Johnny Romeo’s distinctive Neo-Expressionist Pop visions. Growing up during the golden era of television, Romeo’s punchy Pop critiques reflect his life-long fascination with the glamour and melodrama of American Pop culture in all its forms. In NEW AMERICANA, the artist pushes his fascination with quintessential American iconography to exhilarating new heights, drawing heavily from the silver screen stars, larger-than-life sports heroes and brand name imagery of his childhood to create a highly frenetic snapshot of an America caught between its past and present. Romeo’s exuberant, neon-drenched approach to colour and slick graphic stylings imbues NEW AMERICANA with an undeniable Pop edge that puts a refreshingly contemporary twist on favourites such as Muhammad Ali and Marilyn Monroe.
Romeo gleefully drags the old into the new, using the imagery of classic Hollywood and the Pop sheen of mid-20th Century American advertising to examine the formulaic and cyclical nature of fame and celebrity. Each of the subjects chosen represent a recurring trope within American Pop culture, ranging from the inspirational fighter to the youthful rebel, the glamorous starlet to the fearless daredevil. By juxtaposing these archetypes with frenetic and anthemic word assemblages, Romeo plays around with language to deftly subvert our understandings of Pop culture. Delivered with rhythmic finesse, the artist plucks phrases from gangster patois, hip hop and rock’n’roll to create rich linguistic tapestries that demonstrate the power of words to distort and transform Pop symbols.
NEW AMERICANA sees Romeo at his most strident and rambunctious, using his signature razor sharp wit and penchant for absurdist imagery to craft a body of work that cleverly straddles the line between humour and melancholy. Carrying the torch of Pop provocateurs such as Mel Ramos and Jeff Koons, the artist masterfully uses satire and the juxtaposition of seemingly incongruous Pop elements to capture the glorious kitsch and over-the-top nature of American Pop culture. Johnny Romeo’s highly playful take on celebrity portraiture creates hilarious alternate realities within his paintings, where a US president is transformed into a swag rapper in a fresh Adidas tracksuit and a classical Hollywood glamour becomes a rough and tumble boxer.
Amidst the playful exuberance and sugarcoated Technicolour of NEW AMERICANA, there is a decidedly dark undercurrent to the series that speaks to the contemporary American experience. Romeo cleverly appropriates the icons of the past to provide punchy commentary on major issues facing the US today, covering everything from gun-violence and the #MeToo movement, to the influence of hip hop and the corporatisation of the entertainment industry. Veering from the comical to the political, the amusingly surreal to the all too real, the series powerfully subverts American icons to explore how Pop culture informs our identity and reflects the world in which we live.
As part of the opening night, dynamic Pennsylvanian brewers Zeroday Brewing Company will be serving their powerhouse Johnny Romeo IPA beer, which was specially brewed in collaboration with the artist. The limited edition brews feature bombastic designs of Ned Kelly by Romeo, which put a cheeky modern twist on the iconic Australian bushranger. Limited edition prints of the Ned Kelly designs will be featured at the launch of NEW AMERICANA, adding a delightfully antipodean spin on the artist’s homages to quintessential American icons. Renowned for their clean, balanced ales and lagers, Zeroday’s bold, zesty specialty Johnny Romeo IPA perfectly complements the crackling, colourful energy of Romeo’s inimitable Neo-Expressionist Pop.
NEW AMERICANA is an exhilarating slice of Technicolour-fuelled Kitsch Pop that showcases Australia’s leading Pop artist at the height of his powers. Johnny Romeo’s quirky attention-grabbing renditions of beloved American icons and brand names ingeniously flip nostalgia on its head, using cheeky double-entendres and surreal cultural mash-ups to transform the Pop culture of the past into the NEW AMERICANA.
Johnny Romeo | NEW AMERICANA | New Paintings | The Australia Consulate-General, New York, USA in association with Anala Art Advisory
Opening reception with Artist: Thursday 25th October 2018 | 6-8:30pm @ The Australia Consulate-General, Monash Room, Floor 34, 150 East 42nd Street, New York, USA.
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s NEW AMERICANA can be made directly through Anala Art Advisory (info@analaartadvisory.com.au) or by calling Michael Powe on +61 452 586 448
Exhibition Dates: 25th October – 14th December 2018
Johnny Romeo
GUNS‘N’POSES
Paintings
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo makes his audacious Canberra debut with his exhilarating mini retrospective, GUNS’N’POSES. The survey, expertly curated by Aarwun Gallery, brings together iconic Romeo works from all over Australia and the world that have never been seen before in Canberra. Recalling the giddy excitement of an old-school mix tape, GUNS’N’POSES delivers an eclectic selection of visual gems that bring some of Johnny Romeo’s most incendiary paintings to Australian audiences for the first time and showcase him as one of the world’s leading culture jammers. The artist’s bombastic and unapologetically rambunctious Kitsch Pop works fuse off-beat humour, sly cultural references and surreal imagery to re-imagine Pop culture icons through his inimitable Neo-Expressionist Pop lens.
Working throughout the early 2000s and erupting on to the Australian commercial art scene in 2007, Johnny Romeo has become a veritable tour de force in the international art world that has dazzled audiences with his bombastic and delightfully quirky visions of Pop culture. GUNS’N’POSES offers audiences a brilliant insight into the evolution of Australia’s leading Pop artist, exhibiting iconic Romeo works that have been extensively sourced from local and international collections. Veering from the grungy, stream-of-consciousness graffiti punk of his earlier period to the neon-drenched Technicolour Pop slickness of his later work, the mini retrospective is a testament to Romeo’s masterful ability to constantly push Pop Art into thrilling new terrain.
Taking its title from a playful riff on the name of classic LA rockers GUNS’N’POSES, the survey captures Australia’s King of Pop at his most audacious. The irreverent nod to the iconic 80’s hard rock hell-raisers reflects the electric dynamism of Johnny Romeo’s paintings, which buzz with the glorious energy and irrepressible swagger of classic rock songs played at maximum volume. The artist’s signature blend of frenetic imagery, explosive Technicolour arrangements and boisterous word assemblages create dazzling Neo-Expressionist renditions of the modern world that explore our fascination with the gunners and posers of Pop culture – the trail-blazers, and those comfortable to ride on their coat tails.
As a world-renowned culture jammer, Johnny Romeo gleefully plunders the canon of Pop culture to unearth and reconfigure classic Pop iconography in refreshingly new, often surprising ways. The artist draws on a diverse spectrum of Pop culture that samples everything from comic book heroes and advertising, to notorious music stars and tragic celebrities. Playing with our sense of nostalgia, Romeo ingeniously uses the pulp fiction and cult imagery of the past to provide punchy social critiques that speak to our contemporary Pop experience.
Carrying the torch of Pop Art provocateurs like Jeff Koons and Mel Ramos, Johnny Romeo’s rambunctious blend of exuberant imagery and textual witticisms skewers the zany absurdity of modern life and ruptures our sense of the familiar within Pop culture. Fragments of lyrics from street-hardened rap dons and rock’n’roll poets are melded to the catchy jargon of advertising in Romeo’s paintings, creating powerful textual hooks that allow the artist to inject new layers of meaning to indelible icons such as Frida Kahlo and Ned Kelly.
GUNS’N’POSES is a thrilling mini retrospective of visual gems old and new that draws deep from Johnny Romeo’s illustrious career as one of the world’s leading visual Pop auteurs. Bursting with neon-drenched Technicolour explosions, bold graphic imagery and mischievous wit, the series is a powerful statement of intent that provides a captivating glimpse into the mind of Australia’s King of Pop.
Opening reception with Artist: Saturday 8th September 2018 | 6-8pm @ Aarwun Gallery
Shop 11 Federation Square, O Hanlon Place, Nicholls, ACT +61 2 6230 2055
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s GUNS’N’POSES 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: 8th September – 22nd September 2018
Johnny Romeo
ROCK IS DEAD
New Paintings
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo makes his triumphant return to Perth with his most incendiary series to date, ROCK IS DEAD. The artist has crafted an electrifyingly colourful and personal homage to the essence of rock’n’roll that amplifies his inimitable Neo-Expressionist Pop stylings to scorching new levels. Carrying the torch of Pop provocateurs like Mel Ramos and Jeff Koons, Australia’s leading Pop artist juxtaposes punchy cultural commentary with exuberant, absurdist imagery to cleverly subvert rock music tropes and critique the slow death of rock’n’roll in our cultural landscape. Romeo’s frenetic works lament the bygone era of rock’s heyday, while recalling the thrilling, larger-than-life spirit that made icons such as Freddie Mercury and Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ such enduring forces in music.
Over the last decade, countless ink has been spilt on the demise of rock’n’roll. Rock stars such as The Who’s Roger Daltrey and KISS’ Gene Simmons have decried the fading influence of rock in today’s musical climate, noting that the fire and popularity that once propelled rock’n’roll has now been taken up by hip hop. In ROCK IS DEAD, Johnny Romeo masterfully contends with the death of rock’n’roll through his unique Neo-Expressionist Pop lens, crafting a powerful body of work that pays tribute to the end of an era and infers the emerging dominance of hip hop within Pop culture. Part elegy, part celebration, the series is a raucous love letter to the rock stars that plastered bedroom walls, and the vital music that soundtracked generations of restless youth.
Death permeates Romeo’s work in ways both direct and subtle, melancholic and grimly humorous. Morbid motifs such as skulls and skeletons are littered throughout the series, lending the paintings a primal energy that recalls the visceral nihilism of punk and rock’n’roll’s fixation with living fast and dying young. In other instances, Romeo cheekily inverts rock’n’roll’s penchant for mythologising to metaphorically ‘kill’ off rock stars, injecting his works with obscure and often surreal Pop culture references that comment on death while turning common perceptions of figureheads such as John Lennon and Motorhead’s Ian ‘Lemmy’ Kilmister on their head.
Despite its macabre ruminations, ROCK IS DEAD is an inherently life-affirming series that showcases Johnny Romeo at his most strident and bombastic. The artist’s signature graphic line-work and exuberant Technicolour arrangements are delivered with the sonic heft of thundering distorted guitars dialled up to 11, giving each painting a crackling energy that is impossible to ignore. In ROCK IS DEAD, Romeo doesn’t just paint iconic rock-stars, he visually inhabits them. Breathing new life into tired rock tropes, Romeo has crafted memorable portraits that evoke the irreverence of Pop Art upstarts like Mel Ramos while embodying the spirit of musical heroes in absurd and refreshing ways. Each work is drenched in symbolism, imbued with multiple layers of meaning that point not only to what is visible, but more fascinatingly what is happening beyond the pictorial plane.
Rock’n’roll has always been a part of Romeo’s work, but here the artist truly embraces that influence and takes it to soaring new heights. Acting as the quintessential visual rock DJ, Romeo deftly samples the classic album imagery of rock masterpieces such as The Clash’s ‘London Calling’ and Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ to create thrillingly layered mash-ups that harness the power of rock’n’roll iconography and interrogate our relationship with music.
As a life-long fan of rock, Johnny Romeo expertly plumbs the depths of popular music to create visually anthemic word assemblages that recall the rousing choruses of classic rock hits. The artist playfully splices fragments of song titles and lyrics with punchy cultural references, using his signature acerbic wit to subvert rock’n’roll’s overtly masculine tendencies and comment on contemporary issues ranging from feminism and queer identity to grief and cultural appropriation. Text is ingeniously used to also examine the rising influence of hip hop as rock’s heir apparent, demonstrated through the interplay of rock and rap vernacular and the subtle referencing of hip hop brandnames interspersed throughout the series.
A defiant statement of intent from Australia’s King of Pop, ROCK IS DEAD sees Johnny Romeo deliver a truly bombastic and righteously riotous body of works that captures the raw grit and larger-than-life spirit of rock’n’roll with immense wit and electrifying energy. The series is a darkly humorous slice of potent Kitsch Pop that explores shifting musical tides, reflecting a world where the danger and fury of rock’n’roll is dying but refuses to fade away.
Opening reception with Artist: Thursday 9th August 2018 | 6-8pm @ Linton & Kay Galleries,
Fridays Studio / West Perth Gallery, 11 Old Aberdeen Place, West Perth 6005
+61 8 6465 4314
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s ROCK IS DEAD can be made directly through Linton & Kay Galleries (perth@lintonandkay.com.au) or by calling the gallery on +61 8 6465 4314
lintonandkay.com.au
RSVP for Opening Night is essential.
RSVP to: perth@lintonandkay.com.au
Exhibition Dates: 4th August – 26th August 2018
Johnny Romeo
ELECTRIC BOOGALOO
New Paintings
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo makes his triumphant return to Sydney with his thrilling new exhibition, ELECTRIC BOOGALOO. Following a standout year that saw Romeo sell out shows across Australia, New Zealand and the US, and release his 10 year retrospective book Plastic Fantastic, the series showcases Australia’s King of Pop at his most playful and electrifying. Brimming with an undeniable sense of fun and rhythmic vibrancy, ELECTRIC BOOGALOO is a larger-than-life celebration of the pioneering spirit of early hip hop culture that pushes Romeo’s inimitable Neo-Expressionist Pop style to glorious new heights.
Named after the 1982 sequel to ‘Breakdance’, the series pays homage to the intrepid spirit of early hip-hop pioneers, who reconfigured elements of their own Pop reality to create art that was wholly new and original. ELECTRIC BOOGALOO sees Romeo add exciting new flavours to his distinct Neo-Expressionist Pop repertoire, gleefully mashing together eclectic icons ripped from the annals of the Pop canon to playfully subvert our understandings of Pop imagery. Like early DJs grafting disco samples onto hard-hitting drum machine beats, Romeo’s mastery of juxtaposition sees him combine seemingly disparate Pop iconography into some of his most thrillingly absurd and unique takes on Pop culture yet.
Romeo achieves this with hilariously surreal results in the work Dark Cent, in which he depicts a stoic Vincent van Gogh donning a Batman mask. The initially jarring nature of the mash-up gives way to a more nuanced exploration of the tortured anti-hero, a recurring archetype in both art history and comic books. That such deep cultural conversations could be gleaned from such a cheeky rendition of Van Gogh is testament to Romeo’s adeptness at navigating and harnessing the fluidity of Pop icons.
ELECTRIC BOOGALOO features some of Johnny Romeo’s most unapologetically Pop works to date, and bursts at the seams with an irrepressible sense of rambunctious fun. Inspired by the works of Pop Art provocateur Mel Ramos, the series is a hyper-saturated neon celebration of the glorious kitschiness of Pop. Romeo’s chic usage of advertising tropes references Ramos’ tongue in cheek blend of iconic brand names and pin-up imagery, transforming figures such as the Mona Lisa and Popeye the Sailor Man into street-hardened symbols of luxury rap.
In keeping with the frenetic movement and dazzling braggadocio of early breakdancing and hip-hop culture, Romeo imbues his colour arrangements with an insatiable exuberance and energy. High-intensity Technicolour hues and saccharine-sweet tones virtually explode from the canvas, recalling the graffiti streaked subways and vibrant edginess of the Bronx in the early 1980’s. In many ways, Romeo’s vivacious colour arrangements embody the limitless potential and restlessness of young hip-hop artists cutting their teeth on the mean streets of Harlem, hungry to forge new sounds and bust new moves.
Amidst the spirited bubblegum hues and sleek, Pop imagery, ELECTRIC BOOGALOO also reveals Johnny Romeo at his politically brazen and confrontational. The artist delivers rapid fire observations on controversial issues ranging from the Marriage Equality vote to America’s obsession with guns and sexual harassment in Hollywood, all served with Romeo’s signature blend of razor sharp wit and Absurdist gallows humour. The heavily loaded paintings work like Pop culture seismographs, charting shifts and changes in contemporary society with a heavy satirical bent.
Living up to its namesake, there is a serious groove that courses through ELECTRIC BOOGALOO. The slick, bold line-work of Romeo’s icons and the eye-catching punchiness of his textual arrangements perfectly captures the pulsating delivery of break-dancers getting down to the kick-snare thud of bone-rattling hip hop beats. Romeo’s approach to witty stencilled wordplay in particular lends the series a rhythmic heft that imbues each work with catchy visual hooks laden with boisterous double entendres.
Bold, audacious, and delectably irreverent, ELECTRIC BOOGALOO pays tribute to the energy and excitement of the hip-hop underground in the early 1980s. The series is a kaleidoscopic, colour-drenched feast for the senses that gleefully mashes the invigorating, bone-rattling rhythms of rap with the candy-coated sheen of Pop to create Johnny Romeo’s most intoxicating and stridently in-your face works yet.
Opening reception with Artist: Friday 8th December 2017 @ 6:30-8:00pm
Harvey Galleries, 842 Military Road, Mosman, NSW 2088, Australia.
Ph: +61 2 9968 2153
RSVP to attend the opening of ELECTRIC BOOGALOO is essential.
RSVP to: admin@harveygalleries.com.au
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s ELECTRIC BOOGALOO can be made directly through Harvey Galleries (admin@harveygalleries.com.au) or by calling the gallery on +61 2 9968 2153
Exhibition Dates: 7th December – 17th December 2017.
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop artist Johnny Romeo is proud to announce that he will be a featured artist for Austin’s premier international art event, POP AUSTIN. Now in its fourth year, POP AUSTIN draws from the worlds of fine art, sculpture, photography, digital art and light-based installation to offer a truly unique showcase of the world’s most exciting artistic talent. As Australia’s leading Pop artist, Romeo brings his inimitable Neo-Expressionist Pop style to a stellar lineup of contemporary art luminaries that includes the likes of YBA bad boy Damien Hirst, iconic street artist Mr Brainwash and Pop Art visionary Jeff Koons.
POP Austin International Art Show | November 9-12, 2017 | Fair Market – Austin, Texas, USA.