Johnny Romeo
PUSSY RIOT
New Paintings
On February 21, 2012, three members of the Russian feminist punk collective Pussy Riot were arrested after staging a performance in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.
In his breathtaking latest series, Pussy Riot, internationally acclaimed Neo-Expressionist Pop artist Johnny Romeo pays homage to the rebellious spirit of Pussy Riot, creating a coruscating collision of comic book femme fatales, explosive colour arrangements and riotous energy.
Following a sensational 2013, in which Romeo held highly celebrated sold out shows in the US and Australia and enjoyed record sales in Singapore, Pussy Riot sees Johnny Romeo smash open 2014 with all guns blazing.
With Pussy Riot, Romeo has crafted some of his most visually arresting works to date, fully embracing the sensual curves of the female form with his signature graphic gusto to create a Technicolour Gotham of buxom bad girls. Psychedelic colours sputter and slash across the canvas as exaggerated action poses imbue the works with an urgency that recalls the blistering rhythms of riot grrrl rock. Experimenting with unorthodox angles, Romeo drags the audience kicking and screaming into an exhilarating and disorienting maelstrom of garish hues and punk-rock mayhem.
Cheekily nodding towards the masked balaclavas and coloured tights of Pussy Riot’s incendiary performances, Romeo’s paintings draw from a rich cast of comic book vicious vixens, ranging from Cat Woman to Bat Girl.
In the spirit of the feminist collective, Romeo’s appropriated anti-heroines share a taste for rebellion and a refusal to be contained by the rigid strictures of society. Through this series, Pussy Riot’s irreverent ‘punk prayer for freedom’ is re-envisaged as a banshee scream of manic neo-Expressionist pop energy.
Like a shot of pure adrenaline, Pussy Riot is an exhilarating tour de force of sex-laced anarchy. Johnny Romeo’s fascination with Grindhouse cinema shines through as he masterfully straddles the line between seduction and ultra-violence creating works dripping with sultriness and danger. ‘Five Hives’ sees a gun-slinging Black Widow hanging provocatively within the canvas, the physical intensity of her pose suggestive of both acrobatics and bondage. In ‘New York Dolls’, Romeo amps the energy to overdrive, with the unbridled ferocity of Romeo’s Cat Woman threatening to rip through the very fabric of the canvas.
Ever the Postmodern sampler, Pussy Riot is rife with allusions to hip-hop and rock’n’roll. With his signature gusto for Neo-Expressionism and graffiti art, Romeo makes clever textual references to rap staples like Notorious B.I.G’s ‘Juicy’ and Warrant’s hair metal anthem ‘Cherry Pie’, to mention a few. The juxtaposition of white-knuckled femme fury with music often considered overtly macho humorously subverts the sexist connotations of these songs, and encourages discussion about the nexus between women and popular culture.
Sensual and unrelenting in equal measure, Pussy Riot perfectly captures the indomitable spirit of rebellion. Armed with some of his most dizzyingly brazen works yet, Johnny Romeo’s latest series is a chaotic and glorious middle finger to the System.
Any enquires concerning Johnny Romeo’s PUSSY RIOT can be made directly through Muk Muk Fine Art (gallery@mukmuk.com) or by calling the gallery on +61 8 8953 6333.
February 20, 2014