Johnny Romeo
EVERYTHING AT ONCE
New Paintings
In a world driven by overstimulation and endless impressions, how do you cope when every sight, sound and thought crashes over you all at the same time? In his triumphant return to Perth, internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo tackles this existential conundrum head on in Everything at Once, a rollicking series of new paintings that catapults his inimitable Kitsch Pop style to thrilling new heights. Hyper-saturated colours, high octane imagery and punchy word assemblages blaze across the canvas with focused intensity as Australia’s King of Pop captures the overwhelming sugar-rush of modern life in all its exhilarating glory. Romeo’s frenetic blend of comic book nostalgia, rock’n’roll theatrics, sci-fi mysticism, and humorous art history revisionism envisages a Technicolour universe where the sensory overload of Pop culture offers us both the promise of transcendence and the potential road to our ruin. Everything at Once is a visual rollercoaster that celebrates resilience, courage and the unshakable will to thrive when everything comes at you all at once.
Borrowing its name from Scottish rockers Travis’ 2016 album, Everything at Once cleverly encapsulates the chaos of 21st Century life, an existence where we are bombarded by an endless barrage of digital noise, crushing expectations, and simmering angst about the future. More is definitely more inRomeo’s latest series, as he fully embraces the over-the-top maximalism of an overwhelming world operating at warp-speed with some of his most vibrant and high impact paintings to date. Hyper-saturated colours explode from the canvas with pure, concentrated intensity, as confectionary-sweet hues and expansive, Rothko-esque colour fields evoke the psychedelic allure of Technicolour fever dreams. Pushing his Kitsch Pop style to electrifying new extremes, Romeo has assembled a truly larger than life cast of steel-fisted pulp fiction heroes, cyber-punk prophets and cosmological Viking vixens who are defiantly over the top and unapologetically themselves. Everything At Once sees Romeo venture into more surreal terrain, as he blurs the lines between the real and the imaginary, channelling the dreamlike delirium of slowly losing your grip on reality as life starts spinning out of control.
Balancing razor-sharp humour with emotional gravitas, Johnny Romeo takes the exhilarating experience of overstimulation and pushes it to its philosophical extreme as he hilariously explores a world where the very things we love try to kill us. In the context of the series, Romeo is not just referring to romantic love, but the way in which we develop unhealthy addictions to everyday vices and Pop culture, whether it be the brain-rot of cute animal content on social media, the escapist fantasy of cartoon heroes or the nihilistic allure of rock’n’roll. With tongue firmly in cheek, Romeo envisions an Absurdist, neon-drenched Kitsch Pop dreamland where adorable tabby cats become bloodthirsty katana-wielding assassins, and inspirational caped-crusaders reveal their dark side as they threaten to turn on us with a knockout sucker-punch.
Ultimately, Everything at Once is a Poptimistic rallying call for hope and resilience in an age of chaos, where the choice is simple: to hold up or fold up. Throughout the series, Romeo depicts empowered figures who have found meaning amongst the madness, defining their own sense of purpose by leaning into the absurdity of modern life on their own terms. Hard-rocking apes with arena-sized dreams stride confidently alongside undead rockers living out their fuzzed-out guitar fantasies beyond the grave, reminding us that the best way to overcome the craziness of 21st century life is to embrace your inner freak and fight back with your own unique brand of crazy. Meanwhile, Pop Art sad girls discover clarity amidst the maelstrom of modern dating, and love-sick femme fatales find unlikely romance under the glow of a kaleidoscopic moon. The recurring motif of the full moon humorously captures this duality between lunacy and lucidity to humorous effect, as it both possesses us to give in to our most outlandish desires, and illuminates a path towards rebirth and enlightenment.
With Everything at Once, Johnny Romeo delivers more than just a dazzling spectacle of colour and chaos – he offers a mirror to the whirlwind of modern existence, and a battle cry to embrace it with a radical sense of freedom. Bold, irreverent and unapologetically alive, the latest series from Australia’s premier Kitsch Pop powerhouse invites us to find clarity in the overload, courage in the absurd, and joy in the beautiful madness of existing in a world where everything comes at you all at once.
Opening reception with Artist: Thursday 30th October, 2025 @ 6-8pm.
Linton & Kay Galleries, (Subiaco Gallery) 299 Railway Road (corner Nicholson Road), Subiaco, 6008, WA, Australia Ph: +61 8 9388 3300.
RSVP to attend the opening of Johnny Romeo’s EVERYTHING AT ONCE is essential.
RSVP to: subiaco@lintonandkay.com.au
Previewing from Wednesday 29th October, 2025.
Any inquiries regarding Johnny Romeo’s EVERYTHING AT ONCE can be made directly through Linton & Kay Galleries (subiaco@lintonandkay.com.au) or by calling the gallery on +61 8 9388 3300.
Exhibition Dates: 29th October – 17th November 2025.
October 26, 2025