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
August 26, 2018