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Since it was first exhibited in 1963, Roy Lichtenstein’s painting ‘Drowning Girl’ has been praised as a masterpiece of melodrama. The popular image of a teary-eyed woman drowning in a turbulent ocean is emblematic of Lichtenstein’s fascination with depicting miserable women trapped in dominant relationships. In Aqua Teen Force, Johnny Romeo updates Lichtenstein’s ‘drowning girl’ for the Feminist MeToo age, transforming her from a hopeless damsel in distress into a confident scuba diver thriving rather than dying amidst the chaotic swells of the ocean. Romeo’s scuba girl navigates the churning waves of life with eyes wide open, no longer consumed by the sadness brought about by failed relationships. Using her trusty scuba mask to breathe underwater, the girl defiantly rises from the murky depths with her eyes fixed up to the audience, a point boldly captured in the triumphant word assemblage ‘Rise Eyes Up’. Romeo’s use of rich blues, aquatic greens and pelagic purples recalls the majestic weight of Hokusai’s ‘Great Wave’ (1831), an influence on Lichtenstein’s original ‘drowning girl’, while also emphasizing the oceanic vastness that the scuba girl has overcome in her quest for self-discovery. Through this process of metamorphosis, Lichtenstein’s drowning girl becomes a symbol of female empowerment that embodies the spirit of the ‘aqua teen’ in the painting’s title. Aqua Teen Force builds on this concept of girl power, subverting the angst-ridden ‘Teen Spirit’ of Nirvana into a source of resilience and strength. On a more meta note, the title is a witty play on the surreal Adult Swim cartoon comedy series ‘Aqua Teen Hunger’, which explores the lives of mass-produced fast-food characters. The reference to commercialized fast food insightfully pays homage to Lichtenstein, who appropriated imagery from DC Comics and pulp literature, often considered the cultural fast food of the 1960s, to create his timeless Pop Art works.
H34596 Aqua Teen Force
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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.
Johnny Romeo ‘FUTURE DAYS’ Exhibition 2023
Johnny Romeo ‘LANDED!’ Exhibition 2022
Affordable Art Fair Sydney 2022
Johnny Romeo ‘Choose Life’ Seaforth Exhibition 2022
Grand Seaforth Reopening Exhibition 2022
Johnny Romeo ‘The Sunny Side of the Moon’ Mosman Exhibition 2020
Johnny Romeo Pop-Up Exhibition Melbourne 2020
Johnny Romeo ‘To The Extreme’ Mosman Exhibition 2019
Johnny Romeo ‘The Last Days of Disco’ Mosman Exhibition 2018
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Harvey Galleries was founded by the Harvey family in 1994 with an eye to establish a dynamic and inclusive contemporary art space on the North Shore of Sydney. For almost three decades we have expanded our reach to over three gallery locations and an ever expanding stable of the best artists Australia has to offer.
Harvey Galleries acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands upon which our galleries stand. The Guringai people (Seaforth), the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation (Sydney), and the Bunurong Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation (Melbourne).
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