SKU: H31427
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When Bob Dylan first went electric at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, his performance caused an uproar amongst the folk movement, who accused the singer of moving away from his acoustic folk roots. Dylan’s transition to an electric band signalled that times were indeed a-changin’ in rock music, as captured in Johnny Romeo’s painting Highway 65. Brimming with Romeo’s signature candy-coloured irreverence, the work playfully mashes together the classic cool of Bob Dylan with basketball legend Larry Bird in his distinctive #33 Celtics jersey. The number 65 plays a pivotal role conceptually in the painting, referencing the year in which both Dylan went electric and the Boston Celtics won the NBA championship, as well as informing the title Highway 65. Romeo brilliants connects Tennessee State Route 65, which famously runs across Nashville, with Bob Dylan’s ‘Nashville Skyline’ (1969), an album in which the songwriter ventured into country music and continued his musical evolution. The masterful fusion of Dylan and Bird is further encapsulated in the text passage ‘Electric Bird’, which cheekily covers the word ‘Band’ as a nod to Dylan’s full electric rock band performance at the Newport Folk Festival. Rounding off the painting on a sombre note, the word assemblage also recalls the isolation of the Corona pandemic through its allusion to the single ‘Electric Bird’ (2008) by Australian Pop songstress Sia. In the song, Sia laments that ‘someone plugged you in and clipped your wings, now you can’t fly’, a sentiment which rings true today during the Corona pandemic with its travel restrictions and lockdowns.
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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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For all fine art purchases, free collection is available from our Gallery in Seaforth. For Art of Dr. Seuss purchases, free collection is available from QVB (Sydney) or The Block (Melbourne).
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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).
We pay our respect to Elders past and present.
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