2 Johnny Romeo Hive Publishing Art Books Plastic Fantastic & Pump Up the Jams

Description

Pair of hard cover pop art books. "Johnny Romeo Plastic Fantastic - A Survey of Paintings, 2007-2017" - Photographs courtesy of the artist. Catalog by Hive Publishing Co staff. - Hive Publishing Co 2017 - ISBN: 13-978-0-9992720-0-8. And "Johnny Romeo Pump Up the Jams (Popeye): Culture Jamming in the Works of Johnny Romeo" - Artworks photographed by Anurux Thangthong. Studio photographs by Sascha Raeburn. Descriptions by John Ernest Dinamarca. - Hive Publishing Co 2019 - ISBN: 13-978-0-9992720-2-2.

For the last 10 years, internationally acclaimed Australian painter Johnny Romeo has been one of the most exciting and dynamic voices in the contemporary world of Pop Art. Romeo’s latest book, Plastic Fantastic: A Survey Of Paintings, 2007 - 2017 takes a look back at the artist’s illustrious career over the last decade, charting Romeo’s trajectory from rambunctious punk-pop misfit to the Neo-Expressionist Pop juggernaut he is today.

Over the course of 150 pages, Plastic Fantastic showcases some of Johnny Romeo’s most iconic works to date. The book captures Romeo’s electrifying fusion of Technicolour explosions, comic book aesthetics and street art edginess in all its glory, highlighting his penchant for appropriating familiar Pop iconography and transforming it into thrillingly original paintings.
Plastic Fantastic cheekily takes its title from Andy Warhol’s road-trip from New York to LA in 1963. Much like Warhol’s hedonistic jaunt through the seedy backwaters and wide-open plains of the United States, Plastic Fantastic is an adrenaline-soaked journey through the pure Pop psyche of Johnny Romeo. From his earliest works in Live At the Apollo to the glitzy Neo-Expressionist bombast of series such as Top of the Pops, the book reveals Johnny Romeo as one of the most vital forces pushing the Pop medium into new and exciting terrain today.

Ambitious in scope and presentation, Plastic Fantastic is slated to be a full-colour, hardcover book release featuring essays from esteemed art critics. The book is a bombastic celebration of a truly stellar Pop visionary leading the global charge in Neo-Expressionist Pop art.

Pump Up the Jams: Culture Jamming In The Works of Johnny Romeo, the latest book on Australia’s King of Pop, delves into Romeo’s warped Technicolour Pop visions and offers electrifying insights into his art making practice and the important role that culture jamming plays within it. The comprehensive hardcover book brings together 50 select full-colour paintings and artwork descriptions spanning exhibitions from 2017 to 2019, alongside an in-depth Q&A with Johnny Romeo and essays from art writer John Dinamarca and esteemed Australian art advisor Michael Powe.

Released through the US based Hive Publishing Company, Pump Up The Jams is a fascinating overview and deep dive into the colourful and complex mind of Australia’s leading Pop Art rebel.

"Johnny Romeo is an internationally acclaimed Australian painter. Considered Australia’s leading Pop artist, Romeo is spearheading the global Neo-Expressionist Pop movement with his electrifying collision of rock’n’roll swagger, comic book aesthetics and street art. Described by GQ Magazine Australia as ‘part punk, part pop’, Romeo’s Kitsch Pop works are explosive sugar rushes of Technicolour imagery and urban grittiness that are turning heads worldwide.

Armed with tongue-in-cheek humour and razor-sharp social commentary, Johnny Romeo is today renowned as a world-leading culture jammer. His works explore the influence celebrity icons and brand-name heroes have on our contemporary identity. Romeo approaches his art-making practice like a television, broadcasting colourful Postmodern visions that re-contextualise and seek to make sense of the daily cacophony of images, ads and memes we are bombarded with in our Pop-obsessed culture.

Over the last decade, Johnny Romeo has enjoyed a successive number of critically acclaimed and sold-out exhibitions across Australia, New Zealand, and the US. Romeo has continued his dominance as a world-class Pop artist with acclaimed and sell-out exhibitions in Sydney, Perth, Auckland, Napier, Canberra, and the Gold Coast in 2021 and 2022, and most notably the Australian Consulate-General in New York (2018). He was a highly celebrated feature artist in Brisbane’s Sign of the Times group exhibition, alongside street art juggernauts Banksy, Blek le Rat and Swoon. A major force in contemporary Pop art, Romeo is represented by many top galleries both in Australia and overseas.

Romeo has graced several prominent publications such as the Sydney Morning Herald, Vogue, Australian Art Review, Artist Profile and No Cure Magazine. Television features include the ABC 7:30 Report, Foxtel’s STVDIO, and the ABC documentary ‘Conquest of Space: Science Fiction & Contemporary Art’, written and hosted by renowned art critic Dr. Andrew Frost.

On the international stage, Johnny Romeo is a Pop Art tour de force, with hugely celebrated exhibitions in the US, including, New York, Los Angeles, Pennsylvania, and Florida, and recently in Sweden. He has participated in several high-profile group shows across the US and Europe, including Language Art, alongside childhood hero and Pop Art icon Robert Indiana. Romeo made a massive splash as a celebrated featured artist in POP AUSTIN 2017, exhibiting with contemporary art powerhouses like Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Mr. Brainwash. Over the past three years, Romeo has made many standout appearances on US national television and universities. Since 2015, he has released three books examining his paintings and art-making practice: TV Land (2015), 10-year retrospective survey Plastic Fantastic (2017) and Pump Up the Jams: Culture Jamming in the Works of Johnny Romeo (2019).

As one of the biggest names in Pop art today, Romeo’s works are highly sought-after globally, and are held in prominent Australian and international public and private collections. He has collaborated on many illustrious projects with the likes of leading US snowboarding company Gilson Boards, craft beer alchemists Zeroday Brewing Company, world-famous punk band Blink 182 and Lexus Australia." (Source: Harvey Galleries)

Condition

Very Good - Light wear to cover edges

Dimensions

9" x 0.5" x 9" (Width x Depth x Height)