July 6 / 6pm to 9pm
Opening Reception

July 6 - July 20, 2024
Show exhibition

Download the Show Catalog (.pdf)

Even the stars sometimes desire to stray from their orbit and forge their own path.

Wandering Star, the triumphant new series and highly anticipated return to New Orleans from internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo, is a kaleidoscopic, Kitsch Pop celebration of the rebel star that resides in all of us. Australia’s King of Pop delivers a pulse-pounding exploration of the human condition as he pushes his vibrant Technicolour visions to their darkest and most unapologetically pastel-Pop extremes.

Wandering Star captures the complex duality of our existence, where the line between chaos and order rests on a knife’s edge and the road less taken leads us to re-invention and self-realization.

Wandering Star sees Australia’s King of Pop both at his most aggressively rebellious and joyously Poptimistc, as he dives into the duality of the human condition through his distinctive Kitsch Pop lens.

Visually, Johnny Romeo delivers some of his darkest and most unsettling paintings to date as he depicts figures driven by anger and sadness and marred by tragedy and madness. At the same time, Romeo undercuts the emotional intensity of the series with candy-coated colours and life-affirming imagery that evokes the hopes and dreams of aspirational animals and rock’n’roll rebels looking to re-invent themselves.

From cartoon sailors overcoming traumatic childhoods to mafia mavens experiencing near-fatal overdoses, many of the characters that inhabit the artist’s neon-drenched Pop landscape are flawed, complex figures capable of both goodness and depravity who embody the messy contradictions of human existence. Often trying to escape tragic pasts or overcome their inner demons, Romeo’s wandering stars ultimately remind us that we are all worthy of redemption and capable of radical transformation so long as we take the first step.

ARTIST STATEMENT

“Throughout my art-making career, I’ve long been fascinated by the spirit of people who refuse to conform to the limitations of society, and march to the beat of their own drum. In my latest series, I wanted to conceptually focus on this idea of the trailblazer as a rebel who often embraces solitude to forge their own path and live a truly authentic life. While developing the concept for my new body of work, I stumbled across the phrase ‘Wandering Star’ from the title of a Portishead song off their classic 1994 album ‘Dummy’. There is both a heroic and melancholic quality to the phrase which resonates deeply with my explorations of the human condition in the series. On the one hand, wandering away from your regular orbit gives you the chance to truly find your own rhythm without being tied down to norms and conventions. However, straying too far from the beaten path may also lead to your own undoing as you get lost into the void of the unknown. Ultimately, this series plays upon this duality as a metaphor for the inner turmoil that resides within all of us.”

Johnny Romeo 2024

Few musical figures capture the complicated duality of the human condition like the legendary Man in Black, Johnny Cash. In Blues Train, Johnny Romeo has us seeing double as he portrays the country singer as a dignified diptych whose rootsy grittiness is given a sleek, Kitsch Pop sheen.

Inspired by Andy Warhol’s ‘Double Elvis’, the artwork encapsulates the two personas of Johnny Cash, as an outspoken rebel and advocate for the marginalised, and a flawed outlaw in search of redemption.

A master of wordplay, Romeo ingeniously uses the title Blues Train to reflect Cash’s love for trains and the blues. The train journey implied here encompasses migration in all its forms – geographical, historical, philosophical, emotional and metaphysical. Within this context, trains usher us from past to present, damnation to redemption, and ultimately from life to death. The word assemblage ‘Cash Row’ is altered into ‘Cash Flow’, infusing the diptych with the meandering swagger of country music as it recalls the perpetual flow of a journey.

Instead of merely stacking a ‘row’ of Johnny Cashes together like ducks at a county fair, Romeo’s double Cash now has the freedom to flow wherever the stream takes him. Inspired by the music of the Deep South, Cash had a rich connection to New Orleans and its musical traditions of blues, country and gospel, covering iconic tunes such as Steve Goodman’s ‘City of New Orleans’ (1971) and Johnny Horton’s ‘The Battle of New Orleans’ (1959).

In Johnny Romeo’s neon-drenched Pop world, the surreal becomes reality as apes become spandex clad superheroes fighting to save the world.

Inspired by the upcoming Captain America film, ‘Brave New World’, and the ‘Planet of the Apes’ films, Brave World is an evocative piece that blends nostalgia with a profound message as it transforms an ape into Captain America, a dignified soldier of the new world committed to defending freedom.

Much like the ‘Planet of the Apes’ franchise, Romeo envisions a future where apes have taken over and become the true leaders and captains of the new world. Drawing historical connections to the portraiture of Goya and Manet, the piece employs the rich blacks and powerful poses of chiaroscuro painting to create a striking visual impact that lends the primate Captain America a sense of gravitas.

Gazing intently at the audience with an indomitable determination, Romeo’s simian superhero delivers an uplifting message that transcends the limitations of being an animal as he goes from living his ‘Ape History’ into ‘Making History’. The painting, in this sense, urges viewers to take the reins and be the change they want to see, emphasizing that it does not matter who you are so long as you believe in yourself. Brave World masterfully combines playfulness with depth, inviting us to envision a world where everyone has the potential to make history, even apes longing to be Captain America.

There’s a time for leaving, and there’s a time for grieving. In Cry Baby, Romeo captures this intimate moment in teenage heartbreak with his signature Kitsch Pop flair as he reappropriates Roy Lichtenstein’s ‘Girl with Hair Ribbon’ (1965) as a classic motorcycling mod gal shedding a tear.

The painting takes its title from the 1990 John Waters cult film ‘Cry-Baby’, which stars Johnny Depp as a teen-rebel heartthrob who is known to make women swoon with a single tear. In an alternate Pop universe, one could imagine the crying girl figure having her heart broken by Depp’s bad boy Greaser.

While hitting the road in her trusty motorcycle helmet, the teen girl has been momentarily stopped in her tracks by the emotional devastation of her breakup, which Romeo hints at by slyly shifting ‘Fly Baby’ to ‘Cry Baby’.

Deep dive into the disturbed psyche of Gotham City’s most unhinged madman in Dark Riot. The painting teeters between candy-coated clown imagery and an unsettling sense of menace as Johnny Romeo depicts Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker holding a bright red balloon with devilish delight.

Rather than focus on his connection to the Batman universe, Romeo instead examines the self-contained story of a disturbed loner explored in Todd Phillips’ 2019 film ‘Joker’. Drawing inspiration from the nihilistic lone wolves of films such as Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy, and The Conversation, Romeo’s Joker is a symbol of the collective disassociation and madness within all of us. The juxtaposition between the Joker’s deranged expression and the painting’s confectionary sweet colour palette imbues Dark Riot with a genuinely unnerving atmosphere, which is reinforced through the motif of the balloon and its allusion to fellow evil clown Pennywise from IT. Romeo delves into the creepy clown trope further through the corpse-like whiteness of the Joker’s face, which signifies his disconnection from reality and his descent into madness.

Like a neon-drenched spectre from a nightmarish fever dream, Romeo’s Joker also evokes the bedtime stalker of Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’ (1991). Evoking the cheerfully chaotic energy of the title Dark Riot, the Joker embodies the theme of breaking bad, illustrating that even within our darkest pursuits, there exists a potential for an unsettling kind of good. Dark Riot challenges us as viewers to confront the duality within ourselves as Romeo veers from the seething rage of a man ‘So Angry’ he has been driven to insanity to the sugary Poptimism of ‘So Candy’.

Prepare to embrace life’s twisted glamour as you roll the eight ball through Disco Bash, Johnny Romeo’s vibrant re-imagining of Roy Lichtenstein’s iconic painting ‘Woman with Ball’ (1961).

Bursting with bright, bubble-gum hues, Romeo’s rendition of ‘Woman with Ball’ eschews the doll-like sensuality of Lichtenstein’s original for a playful, carefree quality that recalls the childlike wonderment of having fun in the sun. Whilst Romeo’s beach babe shimmers with the nostalgic innocence of a bygone era, there is a sinister undercurrent that cuts through the painting’s joyous summertime vibe. Instead of a beach ball, the woman in the painting is depicted wielding an eight ball above her head. The inclusion of the ball adds a complex dichotomy to the work, with its symbolic connotations of good and bad, and its significance as the Magic Kingpin ball in billiards. More notably, the eight ball represents the lethal thrill of chance, of dancing with death and living to tell the tale as the last person standing. Romeo’s usage of the ball flirts with the darkly seductive allure of addiction, reminding us of the grim side of partying with its allusions to an eight ball of drugs.

The contradictory duality that lies at the heart of the painting is reflected in the title Disco Bash, which brings to mind images of both a violent strike and a joyful disco party. In doing so, the artist skilfully merges the nostalgic innocence of sunny days with the haunting edge of nightlife’s hidden shadows. Romeo plays on this notion further through the grim humour of the text passage ‘All Grimmer’, which is transformed into the sun-drenched phrase ‘All Glimmer’.

Get ready to spread love in a galaxy far, far away with Baby Yoda in Johnny Romeo’s vibrant ode to Poptimism, Dope Hope.

Gaining fame as an Internet meme sensation with the release of ‘The Mandalorian’ series in 2019, Romeo has transformed the wisely adorable Grogu into an intergalactic ambassador of hope and love.

Grogu bares his intention for all to see, as he carefully holds a bright red heart, the symbol used for ‘Like’ in social media, up to his face amidst a sea of warm, inviting colours. More than just a younger version of the sagely Yoda popularized in the original Star Wars trilogy, Romeo’s Grogu stands on his own two feet as a messenger committed to bringing ‘Dope Hope’ to the cosmos.

The history of film is full of femme fatales who dangerously walk the line between seduction and self-destruction. Uma Thurman’s iconic character Mia Wallace from ‘Pulp Fiction’ ranks as one of film’s great silver screen sirens.

In Fox Five, Johnny Romeo playfully tips his hat to Quentin Tarantino’s mafia maven, reimagining the infamous scene in which Mia Wallace experiences a near-fatal overdose as an eye-popping throwback advertisement to the 1950s that draws from the stylised portraits of Mel Ramos and the circular motif of Lucky Strike cigarettes. Mia’s bleeding nose, wiped in a moment of vulnerability, becomes a focal point that denotes the thrill of living on the edge while becoming a target of your own addictions. Mia Wallace’s bloody nosed encounter with death is referenced through the crimson red of her middle finger, and the adrenaline-pumping word assemblage ‘Siren Red Alert’.

As one of the undisputed screen queens of 90’s film, Johnny Romeo elevates Mia Wallace to the upper echelons of Pop culture royalty through the bombastic text of ‘Royale’. At the same time, the artist employs the word as a nod to the legendary ‘royale with cheese’ scene from Pulp Fiction and its humorous musings on the French metric system. Romeo uses this conversation as a launch pad from which he ingeniously draws a parallel to the drug metric system and the measurement of the sinister eight ball. References to the cult film can also be seen in the feisty title Fox Five, which nods to Mia Wallace’s former life as an actress in Pulp Fiction who played the deadly, knife-wielding Raven McCoy in the failed pilot series ‘Fox Force Five’. With its slick Pop stylings and red alert symbolism, Fox Five is an homage to Mia Wallace’s complex legacy as both an alluring wandering star and a cautionary tale of giving in to your dark desires.

Strap in tight for a rollicking jaunt on the wild side with Glam Cat.

In the painting, rock’n’roll fantasies become a reality as the figure of the Sphynx cat is transformed into a high-octane glam rocker decked out in aviation goggles and imposing KISS make-up.

Exchanging the mind-numbing household ennui of his ‘Tom Cat’ existence for the hard rock theatricality of his ‘Glam’ persona, Romeo’s Glam Cat is ready to blow away audiences with blaring guitars and his ear-shattering Meow, depicted in the work in a classic comic book style font.

Flesh may fade, but rock’n’roll will never die, a point made with gleefully pitch black humour in Johnny Romeo’s rollicking homage to Vincent van Gogh, Never Dead.

Often considered a visionary and unusual work in his early career, Van Gogh’s ‘Skull of a Skeleton with a Burning Cigarette’ ( 1886) is cheekily filtered through Romeo’s rebellious Kitsch Pop lens and transformed into a symbol for the excesses of the hard rock lifestyle.

The painting reinterprets Van Gogh’s morbid explorations of vanitas painting with tongue firmly in cheek, as Romeo cleverly subverts the notion of the memento mori within the context of Pop culture. Instead of being a token of our mortality, Romeo’s cigarette-toting skeleton defiantly smokes his way through the afterlife and stands as an enduring testament to the undying spirit of rock’n’roll. The artist slyly plays on this point, veering from the macabre melancholy of ‘Solitude Up’ to the staunch bravado of ‘Altitude Up’. Through this word assemblage, Romeo implies that his hard rockin’ skeleton is too busy being a menace to society to simply lie in his grave, as he rises in defiance of death to live the rock’n’roll dream. Breaking free from the constraints of mortality, the skeleton figure is the ultimate non-conformist, a wandering star who embraces the darkness and light within himself to forge his own path away from the orbit of everyday life.

Unleash the beast within as you rage against climate change in New Savage.

In the painting, Romeo reimagines Smokey the Bear, the beloved environmentalist used by the US Forest Service to promote forest fire prevention, as a ferocious eco-warrior enraged by the rampant environmental destruction happening around him.

Originally a symbol of hope and protection for the wilderness, Smokey’s story began as a baby cub rescued and rehabilitated after a devastating fire. In Romeo’s warped Technicolour world, this living emblem of conservation has now taken a drastic turn in response to ongoing deforestation, urbanization, and habitat destruction, going full blown gangster as he fiercely directs his anger towards humanity’s continued disrespect for the environment.

No longer the gentle protector he once was, Romeo’s Smokey the Bear has become a new savage, a rebel with a cause hell-bent on safeguarding nature at all costs. Smokey is barely recognisable amidst the shocking brutality of his gnarled expression, except for the vintage pilot’s helmet bearing his name. The once-innocent bear is now depicted in Full Mottle, with jagged shards of blotched colours overcoming Smokey as he embraces the ‘Full Throttle’ fury of his environmental crusade. New Savage is a powerful reminder that even the most serene creatures can become fierce warriors when their very existence is threatened.

When it comes to Pop culture, there are few cartoon icons that embody the bareknuckle bluntness of rock’n’roll rebellion quite like Popeye.

In Pop Rocks, Johnny Romeo depicts the beloved spinach-guzzling sailor as a candy-coloured poster boy for overcoming adversity. Romeo touches on the origin stories of the cartoon character’s iconic squint, suggesting that he lost his eye either in a bar fight or during a traumatic event in his youth. Embracing his loss as a badge of honour, Romeo’s Popeye has tattooed his lost eye onto his bulging forearm in an act of defiance that echoes the rough, rock’n’roll charm of Sailor Jerry tattoos. Romeo humorously pays homage to Popeye’s classic, muscular arms through the word assemblage ‘Muscle Pipe’, which is transformed into the statement ‘Muscle Type’.

In many ways, the Popeye figure in the painting recalls the stoic, tough persona of the country icon Johnny Cash. Abandoned as a child and once possibly known as Sue, it is alleged that Popeye’s painful past was the inspiration for Johnny Cash’s song ‘A Boy Named Sue’. By culture jamming together Cash and Popeye, Romeo creates a poignant narrative within the work where strength is forged from tragedy and revenge gives way to self-actualisation. Popeye embraces his past, using his eye tattoo as an opportunity to create his own mystical third eye, where regular vision gives way to wisdom and the secrets of the universe are captured in the eye’s creases. On a more humorous note, the eye tattoo is also used to distract potential foes, turning Popeye’s tragedy into a strategic triumph. Romeo continues this comedic strike through the title Pop Rocks, which references the artist’s own practice as a Pop artist with an eye for Pop culture.

Even in death, Elvis continues to reign as the King of rock’n’roll.

In Shook Up, Johnny Romeo takes this sentiment to its absurdly humorous conclusion, jamming together Andy Warhol’s ‘Skull’ (1976) with the King to create an undead rocker with a suave rockabilly quiff.

With the spirit of rock rebellion giving him a new lease on life, Romeo’s Elvis skull does not simply want to ‘Rock Up’, but to shake up the establishment like he did when he was alive. In this sense, the text assemblage ‘Shook Up’ acts as both a statement of intent, and a reference to the King’s 1956 hit single ‘All Shook Up’.

Close your eyes, relax, and surrender yourself to the dulcet tones of Billie Holiday as you settle in for a night at the Holiday Inn.

The legendary jazz chanteuse looks whimsically outside of the canvas in a state of reverie, shimmering in bright floral colours that capture the scintillating highs and depressively blue lows that characterized her life.

A master of visual wordplay, Romeo toys with the signage of the iconic American ‘Holiday Inn’ hotel chain to riff on the singer’s name. While a big influence on the soul singers that came in her wake, Billie Holiday’s velvety voice was not really considered soul, which Romeo highlights by altering the phrase ‘Soul Smooth’ into ‘So Smooth’.

Immerse yourself in the endless good vibrations of Vibe Ready.

Bridging the gap between the natural jungle and the slick flows of the urban concrete jungle, Johnny Romeo depicts a meditative monkey lost in thought as he listens to music in an homage to Banksy’s ‘DJ Monkey’.

The effortlessly cool chimpanzee delivers pure vibes as he embraces his new hip-hop reality, dressed in his fresh Adidas tracksuit, vintage headphones and slicked-back beret. Once overlooked as just another chimp in his ape ‘tribe’, Romeo’s stylish simian B-boy is ready to dedicate his life to the pursuit of the ‘vibe’. This commitment can be seen in the text ‘Ready’, which is positioned to look like a neck tattoo.