In a world driven by conformity and complacency, what does it mean to live authentically and embrace your true self? With Daydream Believers, internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo makes his dynamic Adelaide solo debut with an electrifying series of new paintings and prints that explores the idea of identity as performance and transformation in his signature Kitsch Pop style. Brimming with vibrant, Pop-savvy imagery, explosive colour arrangements and psychedelic, Absurdist symbolism, Daydream Believers brings audiences on a breathtaking journey through the interior space between appearance and authenticity, where we have the freedom to continually evolve and reimagine our own identity. Australia’s leading Pop powerhouse envisions a neon-drenched, Technicolour world that blurs the lines between reality and fantasy, the familiar and the unexpected, as he compels viewers to consider the roles we play, the masks we wear, and the stories we tell in pursuit of purpose and belonging. At its heart, Daydream Believers is a powerful statement about hope and reinvention. Weaving together intrepid animal adventurers, soul-searching comic book heroes and Pop culture rebels, Australia’s King of Pop conjures a vivid universe of infinite possibilities, inviting us to transform, unlock our limitless potential, and become the Daydream Believers we were always destined to be.
Johnny Romeo is an Australian contemporary pop artist.
His works infuse the aesthetics of print-based Warholian Pop with a street-art speed and grit, all executed through some strange on-canvas alchemy in acrylic and oil. The works heavily reference recent and current popular culture, unabashedly harvesting politicians, celebrities, pinups, and comic book heroes and villains, as protagonists.
Rendered in muted pop hues, like high vibrancy paint applied thinly over stubborn grey concrete, these recognisable personalities often juxtapose witty stenciled wordplay, some letters scratched out to create unlikely double and triple entendres out of previously stale slogans and rehashed platitudes. Through that graphic style Romeo equally engages in, and simultaneously critiques consumer culture and branding in relation to the construction of personal identity.
He lives and works in Sydney and Los Angeles.
View Johnny Romeo’s works here.