ABOUT
photograph by @nostalgia_kid
Painter and multimedia artist based in the UK. My work draws on all things popular culture as I rip back the surface of the advertised and offer an alternate, often disarming and ironic view of life's underbelly. In this way I'm drilling holes into the accepted notion of Hero/Heroine and pop idolatry. I work hard to build empathy into my work, that which connects the viewer to my subject with a secret wink of an eye.
The character of my painting is free flowing, buoyant yet subversive, somewhere between abstract and pasquinade, presenting a sometimes confusing narrative based on tacit culture and entertainment. I look to challenge any complacency viewers may have towards accepting life's norm.
I have been exhibited in London, Manchester and Newcastle art galleries such as Vane, Atlas, Gallagher and Turner, Castle Manchester and Helium London.
Johnnyx August 2021
from Narc magazine:
"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 Newcastle Bath Lane Art College and 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