BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Johnny Vagabond (aka John Rivero) first started his art with a crayon at age two and never looked back. An early love of comic books and illustration grounded him in traditional methods of drawing and painting. His later education focused on classical oil painting, and a three year apprenticeship to portrait artist Daniel Fuller completed his formal training.
Stints in the advertising world came next, developing ad campaigns and creating computer graphics for news stories. Eventually, he quit his day job to concentrate on his personal art and music. He now concentrates on his fine art, exhibiting in any number of galleries. He has exhibited extensively throughout South Central Pennsylvania, showing at the Doshi and Shape galleries, as well as regular shows in the Thomas June Gallery.
His art is built on a fusion of classical technique, pop culture and an aesthetic that comes from the 19th Century movement known as Symbolism. The Symbolists looked for a deeper reality behind the everyday world, and believed feverently in the power of fine art to uncover it. Dr. Johnny Vagabond's dark, surreal figures inhabit bizarre symbolic landscapes filled with lush, overgrown weeds and discarded objects. Utilizing both oil and acrylics, he creates dreamy, detailed images fraught with atmosphere.
Stints in the advertising world came next, developing ad campaigns and creating computer graphics for news stories. Eventually, he quit his day job to concentrate on his personal art and music. He now concentrates on his fine art, exhibiting in any number of galleries. He has exhibited extensively throughout South Central Pennsylvania, showing at the Doshi and Shape galleries, as well as regular shows in the Thomas June Gallery.
His art is built on a fusion of classical technique, pop culture and an aesthetic that comes from the 19th Century movement known as Symbolism. The Symbolists looked for a deeper reality behind the everyday world, and believed feverently in the power of fine art to uncover it. Dr. Johnny Vagabond's dark, surreal figures inhabit bizarre symbolic landscapes filled with lush, overgrown weeds and discarded objects. Utilizing both oil and acrylics, he creates dreamy, detailed images fraught with atmosphere.