JOHNNY ROMEO

Impatient from watching a never ending, triumphant return of the Superhero, poor-forgotten-Super Villains have BOOM! BANG! and CLANG!'d their way out of Pandora's Box, taking with them one very vital prisoner: the artist. With the artist's disappearance, the ransom is clear; in this world, drunk on mass media and pop-mentality, Romeo. Must. Die. Romeo Must Die, a feat of ultimate revenge, is the latest installment from Sydney Pop artist Johnny Romeo. The exhibition unites such notorious villains as Dr. Freeze, the Riddler, and the Green Goblin and is to be opened at NG Art Gallery by film critic and broadcaster Marc Fennell on Tuesday 18 October.

 

 

 

 

 

As pop-culture's answer to Picasso and Matisse, "they didn't paint colour, they felt it," Romeo's "real underbelly", Super Villain saga demonstrates the yin/yang relationship between superhero and super villain through bold displays of colour, text and of course, cartoon villains. Pulsating with commentary on the failures of global and chaotic consumerism, media saturation and celebrity fetishism Romeo's work has been described as both reflective realism and pop punk that meditates on the critiques of modernity, modern life, and modern thought to the soundtrack of frenetic beatnik poetry whirring in Romeo's Popinclined mind. In his own words, "Pop is modern life. It is modern living: we construct our identities from the vast array of images that pop culture immerses us in."

 

 

Most recently, Johnny Romeo has established international acclaim through multiple shows in Los Angeles and this progressive recognition will continue with upcoming exhibitions in New York and, closer to home, in Alice Springs. The pop-devotee has also been enshrined in the iRomeo iPhone app, recently released from Apple.

For further information, please email ng@ngart.com.au

Previous Works by Johnny Romeo