Angry Birds by Johnny Romeo

New York, NY.  Porter Contemporary presents ANGRY BIRDS, a solo exhibition by Australian Pop artist Johnny Romeo focusing on female superheroes from September 10 through October 11 with an opening reception to the public with the artist on Thursday, September 10, from 6 - 8 PM.

Comic book superheroes and villains have long played an integral role in Johnny Romeo’s paintings. In ANGRY BIRDS, Romeo draws on a rich cast of comic book vicious vixens, ranging from Cat Woman to Bat Girl. Cheekily subverting our often male-centric associations with superheroes, Romeo’s alluringly aggressive heroines re-envision the comic book landscape. Painted with slick commanding lines and a palpable, physical intensity, the femme fatales captured by Romeo bristle with an insatiable sense of urgency and rebellion. 

“While a focus on superheroes grows in Hollywood” says Jessica L. Porter, Director of Porter Contemporary and curator of ANGRY BIRDS, “we haven’t seen an increase in the diversity of those superheroes. Angry Birds puts the female superheroe into the spotlight”. ANGRY BIRDS further emboldens these superheroes, portraying them as unapologetically brazen with an intoxicating taste for danger. 

This is Johnny Romeo’s second solo exhibition with Porter Contemporary, the first, GRINDHOUSE, debuted in 2013. Romeo continues his use of explosive color arrangements re-energizing and intensifying these comic book heroines. 

An online preview of ANGRY BIRDS is available at: http://www.portercontemporary.com/romeo-angry-birds-gallery/