Johnny Romeo

Game Up Destiny

Name: Game Up Destiny - Harvey Galleries
SKU: H36022
Price: 12085.00 AUD
Availability: InStock

SKU: H36022

Acrylic and Oil on Canvas

155 x 155 cm Framed

A$12,085

Embrace the warrior within as Johnny Romeo transports you to an alternate reality where feudal Japan exists in a galaxy far, far away. In Game Up Destiny, Romeo masterfully jams together the worlds of Star Wars and Japanese warrior culture as he depicts the Empire’s arch villain Darth Vader as a fearless, Kitana wielding samurai decked out in traditional armour. Cleverly digging into sci-fi lore, Romeo’s Kitsch Pop-inflected interpretation of Darth Vader as a bygone knight of the Rising Sun nods to Star Wars’s director George Lucas, who drew inspiration for the iconic Sith Lord from the samurai and Japanese culture. Romeo deftly leans into Japanese iconography through the motif of a neon-soaked Rising Sun looming ominously behind Darth Vader. Abandoning the cruel darkness of the Sith Code for a more noble cause, the Rising Sun symbolizes Darth Vader’s newfound passion for unity and balance in the cosmos as he meditates on infinity and the passage of life and time. Blurring the boundaries between the real and the imaginary, Romeo invites us to question where the historical reality of the samurai ends, and the cosmic fiction of Star Wars begins. The word assemblage ‘Sword Pulp Up’ adds a witty, visceral punch to the work, a nod to Darth Vader’s influence on pulp fiction and a playful twist on Vader’s sword-wielding stance as he threatens to ‘beat you to a pulp’. Inspired by the idea of ‘super reality’ in gaming culture, Romeo plays with spatial depth, thrusting Vader to the front of the pictorial plane and rupturing our sense of what is real and artificial. Through the title Game Up Destiny, Romeo extends this exploration of alternate realities into everyday life, reminding us that, like avatars in a game, we all have the power to create our own destiny.

H36022 Game Up Destiny, 2025

$12,085
or $2,417 x 5 months with Art Money

In stock

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About Johnny Romeo

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.