Johnny Romeo
BIGGIE SMALLS
New Works
Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo makes his thrilling return to Penny Contemporary Gallery in Hobart with his exhilarating exhibition Biggie Smalls. Comprising of five new paintings and ten original prints, the series sees Australia’s King of Pop put a refreshing new spin on his inimitable Kitsch Pop style as he re-visits some of his most powerful recent paintings, recreating them on a smaller scale. Taking on the role of a 21st Century postmodern visual DJ, Romeo ingeniously explores the creative process and what it means to reinterpret your own work, crafting an electrifying collection of paintings and prints that breathe new life into the artist’s warped Technicolour visions.
The series takes its humorous title from the name of one of hip hop’s greatest legends, Biggie Smalls. With tongue firmly in cheek, Johnny Romeo cleverly plays on the juxtaposition between ‘Biggie’ and ‘Smalls’ to capture the spirit of his latest exhibition – to reimagine some of his largest and most beloved paintings on a smaller scale. Throughout the series, Romeo draws inspiration from the playful creativity and unorthodox production methods of hip hop pioneers, who revolutionized popular music through their usage of remixing and sampling. Like a crate-digging DJ chopping and changing dusty soul samples into a fresh new hip hop tune, Romeo ingeniously toys around with scale, colour, composition and Pop culture references with his latest paintings and prints to reinterpret his older material in bold and fresh ways. Sampling and remixing have long played a role in Romeo’s art making practice, which he pushes to delightfully meta new heights in Biggie Smalls as he takes on the task of not just remixing Pop culture references, but his very own work.
As the consummate postmodern sampler, Johnny Romeo has littered his latest prints with humorously sharp Pop culture references cleverly curated from the worlds of music, film, and art history. Australia’s King of Pop skillfully mashes together the electrifying buzz of rock’n’roll, the fever dream mindscapes of psychedelia and the esoteric symbolism of Surrealism to create punchy, small-scale epics that filter the Pop-savvy auteurism of Quentin Tarantino and the raw introspection of Frida Kahlo through Romeo’s unmistakable Kitsch Pop lens. In prints such as ‘Boogie Kid’ and ‘Royal Funk’, legendary Pop icons and cosmic rockstars now considered music royalty are transformed into regal rulers ordering their royal subjects on to the dance floor. Meanwhile, works like ‘Siren Mode’ and ‘Fear Less’ see Romeo imbue his vibrant Kitsch Pop stylings with a refreshingly political spin as he re-contextualizes silver screen heroines such as Princess Leia and Mia Wallace from ‘Pulp Fiction’ into the Me-Too era as street hardened Feminist B-girls and ruthless mafia assassins. Romeo’s fascination with outlaw imagery and its intersection with Pop culture is further reflected through his kaleidoscopic double vision portraits of the legendary bushranger Ned Kelly, which explore the duality of the iron-helmed rebel as both a cold-blooded cop killer and a righteous anti-hero.
Change and metamorphosis play a central role in Biggie Smalls, both through Johnny Romeo’s creative process and his neon-drenched depiction of animals in the exhibition’s three feature paintings. Romeo’s fantastical beasts, ranging from an adventurous surfing bear to an intergalactic rockstar cat, all inhabit a space of radical self-transformation where they have transcended the banal limitations of their everyday existence to become the best versions of themselves. Tapping into this sense of wide-eyed wonderment and limitless possibility, Romeo creates an artistic parallel to remixing, suggesting that we never remain static and are capable of constantly redefining ourselves.
Biggie Smalls plays with our sense of the familiar and sees Australia’s King of Pop harness the creative processes of hip hop to remix his own paintings in fresh and original ways. With his uncanny ability to reinterpret and distill his distinctive Kitsch Pop style, Johnny Romeo has created a fun and electrifying collection of works on a smaller scale that feel immense and pack a serious punch.
Opening reception with Artist – Friday 17th November 2023 | 5:00-7:00pm at Penny Contemporary,
187 Liverpool Street, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia | www.pennycontemporary.com.au
Any enquires regarding Johnny Romeo’s BIGGIE SMALLS works 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: November 17th – 12th December 2023.
November 10, 2023