Johnny Romeo
EVERYTHING AT ONCE
New Paintings
Paradise isn’t a place – it’s a state of mind. For internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo, ‘paradise’ is something we create from the depths of our own imagination. With Paradise Found, Romeo makes his triumphant hometown return to Sydney with a thrilling series of new original paintings that sees Australia’s King of Pop inject his inimitable Kitsch Pop style with a delectable dose of Surrealism. Jamming together slick Pop culture iconography, psychedelic colour arrangements and mind-bending Absurdist imagery, Romeo’s latest series is a rollicking joyride through a vibrant Technicolour dreamland where we are each empowered to transform our fantasies, no matter how strange, into uplifting, tangible realities. Paradise Found is Romeo at his most hypnotic and Surreal, as he calls on audiences to embrace life in all its weirdness and wonder, find beauty and meaning in the madness, and discover that paradise was never somewhere out there, but something we find within ourselves.
In Paradise Found, Johnny Romeo revisits the eternal question first posed by John Milton in Paradise Lost — what does it mean to lose paradise, and can we ever truly find it again? Romeo ingeniously flips Milton’s tale of exile into a joyous vision of reclamation and radical transformation, declaring that paradise was never really lost, but has always existed within us. Through his characteristically bold, Kitsch Pop lens, Romeo proposes that to reclaim our own inner paradise, we must find the confidence to face the turbulent waters of our inner psyche and unlock the true potential of our imagination to transform our dreams into reality. In doing so, the exhibition cleverly turns the religious overtones of Milton’s classic inward, highlighting that the road to paradise exists within the introspective landscapes of our mind and spirt. Instead of exiled angels and fallen men, Romeo’s dreamlands are rich with larger-than-life cartoon heroes, mysterious animals and delightfully warped Pop culture icons all redefining themselves in search of their own slice of paradise.
At its heart, Paradise Found explores how we blur the lines between the real and the imaginary, and how the power of our dreams can unlock pathways to transcendence and meaning. The exhibition sees Johnny Romeo at his most mind-bending and surreal while maintaining his unapologetic Pop edge, as Australia’s King of Pop takes us a on rip-roaring trip through alternate realities, parallel dimensions and the fluid boundaries between the seen and unseen. Echoing the dreamlike distortions of Surrealist greats such as Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte, Romeo uses immersive, hallucinatory colours palettes and experiments with perspective, scale and the pictorial plane to destabilise our perception of the tangible world. Throughout the series, cybergoth avatars suspend our sense of space and time and ordinary housecats smash through the wall between dreams and reality, while fiery skulls defy the laws of death and threaten to crash through the very fabric of the canvas. Disorienting and electrifying in equal measure, Romeo’s neon-drenched Surrealist visions create a world where the traditional laws of physics and logic cease to exist, where simulation and real life collide in glorious Technicolour.
Brimming with some of Johnny Romeo’s most vibrant and exhilarating works to date, Paradise Found is a radiant celebration of self-transformation. Each painting is an act of reinvention, a reminder that we are each equipped with the imaginative power to realise our own sense of paradise and define the best version of ourselves. While this personal journey is not without its hardships, there is a palpable sense of joy that runs throughout the series, as Pop Art poster-girls and sharp dressed fish-men find meaning in surreal, unexpected places. Romeo delivers his message with an absurd sense of humour and a life-affirming dose of Poptimism, as evil Sith Lords devote themselves to the noble calling of the Japanese warrior code, and once enraged superheroes discover inner peace through the tranquillity of paddleboarding. Romeo’s exuberant paintings invite us to mould our inner worlds, to take the fragments of Pop culture and the limitless possibilities of our dreams and spin them into something beautifully new.
With his mind-bending latest series, Australia’s King of Pop declares that paradise is more than just a destination, but a creative act that leads to our own inner revolution. In a chaotic, fast-shifting world, Paradise Found’s pulse-pounding, highly imaginative works invite us to dream boldly, live colourfully, and rediscover that paradise was never lost — it was within us all along.
Opening reception with Artist: Friday 5th December, 2025 @ 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 PARADISE FOUND is essential.
RSVP to: rsvp@harveygalleries.com.au or – RSVP HERE
Exclusive Purchase and Preview period: Saturday 29th November – 10am-5pm AEST. Add your name to the VIP List – REGISTER HERE
Artist Talk: Saturday 6th December, 2025 – 2-3pm – REGISTER HERE
Any inquiries regarding Johnny Romeo’s PARADISE FOUND can be made directly through Harvey Galleries (hg@harveygalleries.com.au) or by calling the gallery on +61 2 9907 0595.
Exhibition Dates: 5th December – 16th December 2025.
November 26, 2025