Biography | Artwork

 

Johnny Romeo is an Australian born painter. His work is critically acclaimed in its attempt to represent a visual poetic and rhythmic blending of word, symbol and image. Johnny Romeo is considered one of Australia’s most popular and exciting young artists.   He is considered by many to be one of the ones to watch.  In Australia, he is represented by many of the country’s top galleries.  Johnny Romeo’s work has appeared in countless magazines and newspapers including Vogue, Australian Art Review, Australian Art Collector, Time Out, Artist Profile, NZ Life & Leisure Magazine and the Sydney Morning Herald, the Melbourne Age and Perth Sunday Times.  Recently he was featured in SBS and Foxtel’s new Australian Arts channel STVDIO.    Referred to as a bombastic neo-expressionist pure pop painter with a lot to say about modern life, his work deals with the way we construct our identities from the vast array of images that pop culture immerses us in. His work is highly recognizable and featured in numerous national and international public and private collections. Johnny Romeo's pop culture philosophy targets modern chaotic consumerism, a tour de force of 'can't cope culture'; it offers conceptual innovations that envelope society, from the confrontation of audacious pop icon images to juxtaposing a veritable slice of the reality we inhabit, asphyxiated by materialism, advertising, brand names and excess.   Romeo perpetuates the perception of society's "lingua franca" - the widespread cultural elements of vernacular language, exciting the audience of modern, pop iconic culture; rediscovering, identifying and provoking the colourful pulsating energy of commercialism.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT    My images are often recollections of my childhood. Those impressionable things we saw as kids that somehow never quite left us.  I did a lot of my growing up in front of the TV watching superheroes with extraordinary superhuman powers protecting the public against menacing villains. I grew up admiring and idolizing them.  I yearned to become a super-hero.   Consequently, today it’s become really hard to loose my pop mentality whilst I’m still living a truly pop reality…we all are!  I’m very interested in themes and techniques drawn from popular mass culture, such as advertising, comic books and mundane cultural objects and imagery. I love expansive use of colour, bold colours, flat colours and banal or kitschy elements of pop culture.  I’m also interested in the use and juxtaposition of words and symbols and the clever use of irony. Products, labelling, brand names, icons and logos all intrigue me immensely. All these things have significance to me because they’re so much a part of our everyday lives.  They are so much a part of my process as they are of my life.  I thrive off that energy.  I’m never alone whilst I’m in a shopping centre, newsagency, reading a magazine, watching a movie or television show, etc.   My works are about just that…the way we connect with pop culture. As kids, we connected with pop culture and as adults we all are still very much connected.  Just recently 1580 superheroes gathered in Los Angeles to break the Guinness World Record for the number of heroes in one location. Superheroes have become the new athletes and entertainers of our day. We’ve rediscovered them. Everybody identifies with them and in the near future…we could all be superheroes just for one day.

 

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EDUCATION

 

Bachelor Art Education, College of Fine Arts, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Masters Degree (Comms), University of Western Sydney, NSW, Australia.

 

 

2011 Romeo Must Die: The Super Villain Series, NG Art Gallery, Sydney

2011 Sin City, Buratti Fine Art, Perth

2011 The Ned Kelly Hero Series, 19 KAREN Contemporary Artspace
2010 Spiderbait, 19Karen, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
2010 Electric Bird, Letham Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2010 Johnny Romeo Vs David Spencer, United Galleries, Perth, Australia
2010 You’ll Never Take Me Alive! The Ned Kelly Hero Series, NG Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2009 Candyland, 19Karen, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
2009 Crisis On Infinite Earths, Letham Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2009 Flight Club, Gilligan Grant Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2008 Dove Kidney Zoo, NG Art Gallery in association with Maurice Byer ChambersMLC Centre, Sydney, Australia
2008 Galaxy Cattle, NG Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2007 Brain on a Machine, China Heights, Surry Hills, NSW, Australia
2007 Converse, Regard Gallery, Darlington, NSW, Australia
2007 Live at the Apollo, Newview Gallery, Newtown, NSW, Australia

 

 

2011 Homage to Frida, 19 KAREN Contemporary Artspace, Gold Coast
2010 The Sydney Fringe Festival,  Sydney, NSW, Australia 
2010 Mood Swings, 19Karen, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
2009 Plates, Letham Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2009 Petits Travaux, Retrospect Galleries, Byron Bay
2009 Troop, Gilligan Grant Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2009 Art Sydney 09, Royal Hall of Industries, Moore Park, Sydney, NSW, Australia
2009 Each To Their Own, The Freshly Baked Gallery (Online), Melbourne
2009 Revolution Of Art, Retrospect Galleries, Byron Bay
2009 Williamstown Festival Contemporary Art Prize
2009 Every Dog Has Its Day, Letham Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2008 Art Sydney 08, Royal Hall of Industries, Moore Park, Sydney, NSW, Australia
2008 Food For Thought, NG Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2008 Royalty Tooth Coins, 2042: Art on the Street, Sydney, Australia
2008 Come See The Animals, Gilligan Grant Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2008 Sordid Tales: A History of Chippendale, NG Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2007 Fragile Planet, NG Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2007 The Weekend Australian Art Sydney 07, Royal Hall of Industries, Moore Park, Sydney
2007 Let Them Roam, Harrison Galleries, Sydney, Australia

 

 

Numerous public and private national and international collections.

 

PUBLICATIONS 

 

2011 INSITE Magazine, Issue 28 - Autumn
2011 GQ Style Magazine, Autumn/Winter (An internationally renowned magazine)
2011 Australian Art Collector Magazine, January/March ed.
2010 Meet Johnny Romeo, Grind Magazine, Issue 1
2010 Australian Galleries Launch IPhone Apps, Australian Art Collector. Issue 54, Oct – Dec 
2010 Art + Culture, Ponsonby News Magazine, New Zealand. September issue

2010 Star Wars, STE Magazine, Sunday Times, Perth. June 13th

2010 Art Month Follow Your Art, Australia Vogue Living March/April
2010 Exhibitions_View Australia, Artist Profile Magazine, Issue 10
2010 Hot Tickets- Art, Entertainment The Sun Herald March 7th
2010 Framing Ned Kelly, Interval Arts & Film Guide, The Drum Media Magazine, 16th March Issue 1000
2010 Style, Prestige Lifestyle Magazine, Gold Coast. March 
2010 Street Level, The Brag Magazine, Issue 353 March 8th
2010 Pedro TV Review, The Newtonian, Vol 1 Edition 5
2009 Inner City Vibe, by Food For The Future Writer, October, Sprout Magazine, issue 1

 

 

Q. At what age did you begin creating art?

 

Q. Why do you make art?

A. I make art because it’s truly my greatest passion and I totally feel compelled to express it with the world. I truly love colour and I want the world to see and feel that.

Q. Who do you make it for?

A. I’m a colourist so I make art for people who love colour.

Q. Do you plan out a piece or do you wing it?

A. Everything I paint has a plan and purpose. I make extensive sketches in journals and annotate everything…even if I’m not using that particular sketch. I use everything eventually. I’m very visual so I’m forever taking photos, cutting magazines, collecting things, writing down things, sketching on the run. These are my thoughts and they eventually become my paintings! 

Q. Do you have heroes? If so, who, if not why not?

 

Q. How do you decide when a piece of work is finished?

A. Only once the battle has ended. There is great solitude being a painter. Our greatest achievements are often experienced on our own…but before such jubilation first comes struggle. There is a dialogue between you and the canvas….a pushing and pulling effect if you like. The painter must be in control because the canvas often wants to go a different way. You must dictate the painting. You battle and fight to tighten or tweak certain areas and this takes energy...great energy to get it right. Painting is 100% total adrenalin. The planning, drafting and composing, the execution and struggle, the tightening and tweaking, the battle and fight, the solitude and roller coaster ride and eventually the joy and triumph. What a rush, you’ve won only to begin all over again.  

 
Q. Do you have your own cure for artists block?

A. I’m very fortunate that I’m always showing and that I’m always traveling with my works…so if I’m showing in a certain city or country in my down time, I’m out exploring. I sketch, draw and take photos. I collect things. This assists with any blockages because I’m always able to recall those experiences. As an artist, being constantly creatively active is the greatest cure for any blockage.

Q. Do you think having an art education is important in order to be successful?

A. Yes and no. Often collectors, curators, dealers and art writers like   to know the history of an artist, where he or she has studied. They like to know the artist’s academic and artistic lineage if you like. On the flip side, the work should stand-alone…it should speak volumes unassisted.

See Johnny working on his latest artworks; Video 1 and Video 2