Johnnyx is a visual and audio artist based in Newcastle upon Tyne UK. Audio work is experimental, hardware only electronic and improvised live. He has been exhibited at Manchester Contemporary, Vane, Atlas, Gallagher and Turner, Castle Manchester and Helium London. "I pull back the surface of the advertised and offer a view of life's underbelly, whilst drilling holes into the daily information feed" C.V. Available
March 2023
Johnny is an innovative and restless artist whose practice bleeds through the boundaries of traditional categorisation and formats. Working across print, paint, text, VR, AI and sound, he is as comfortable in the digital realm as on the stretched canvas of the physical.
His work is sharp, politically adroit, and always intriguing, often exposing the conceits of power and propaganda through playful means.
Johnny’s work often pits himself against the canon of art history – as the David to art’s Goliath – exploring his own visual identity through the disassembly of icons.
Buoyant, lively, dark, lost or brimming with optimism, his work always betrays himself, a restless creative with a laser focus.
Johnny’s work has been exhibited and utilised in various formats and settings; from the traditional solo exhibition for Gallagher and Turner and group shows at Vane and Manchester Contemporary, to having his interactive Virtual Reality work displayed at Proto Labs: (North East Virtual Reality Hub - the research for which was part funded by the Arts Council).
Martin McAloon. Artist name "Feliks Culpa"
January 2023
from Narc magazine 2019:
"JOHNNYX’S VIBRANT COLLAGE WORKS, MARRY SOCIAL COMMENTARY AND SLOGANEERING WITH A VISCERAL POP-ART AESTHETIC"
In tumultuous times, the urban environment often manifests the most incisive commentary. The student riots of May ’68 proffered the timeless aphorism: Be Reasonable, Demand the Impossible; which later became Malcolm McLaren’s raison d’etre during punk. In this spirit, Johnnyx’s upcoming two-day show entitled Final Countdown at Newcastle’s B&D Gallery on Friday 11th and Saturday 12th October promises a similarly critical intervention into quotidian.
‘Johnnyx’ sounds a suitable soubriquet for a masked-crusader of the night; one hell-bent on fighting the terror of postmodern alienation through waging war on the vacuous talking heads of popular culture. Appropriately, then, his vibrant collage works marry social commentary and sloganeering with a visceral pop-art aesthetic indebted to Warhol and his Factory coterie, recalling too, Jamie Reid’s biting Anarchy-era artworks.
These punk assemblages employ the techniques of détournement and bricolage to create a “textured, multi-layered information aesthetic”, exploring themes ranging from environmental concerns to trade wars. For those seeking an ailment to the impending clouds of disillusionment that befall us, or those simply wiling to revel in the madness of our times, join Johnnyx in fatalistic glee in counting down the final hours of the doomsday clock
JAMES F ANDERSON, OCTOBER 9TH, 2019
Johnny studied Art at Bath Lane Art College Newcastle upon Tyne, Edinburgh College and Dundee University Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art.
Some links:
Yap Yen Photo Blog - Johnnyx
Final Countdown Narc Magazine
Make Print Great Again Narc Magazine
Newcastle Evening Chronicle
Please Stand By Narc Magazine
Pavement lickers article Huck Mag
Pavement Lickers article
June 2017: Empathy Tower article 3rd Dimension magazine
October 2016: Empathy Tower. Newcastle Upon Tyne - Northumberland St Performance
October 2016: narc magazine
October 2016: www.chroniclelive.co.uk
October 2016: Interview Spice FM