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PRESS RELEASE
John Romi’s ‘Victory’ Selected for Prestigious
Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art’s 43rd Annual Juried Exhibition
AUGUSTA, GA - August 2025 - Artist John Romi has been selected to exhibit his work Victory at the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art’s 43rd Annual Juried Exhibition, A Sense of Place, running from September 5 to October 10, 2025. The show, juried by Marshall Price, Chief Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, features only 64 works chosen from 543 submissions nationwide.
Founder of the art style Cuneiformism, Romi engineers high-density geometric macro-systems that function as load-bearing spatial grids. His practice—informed by KTH systems engineering—strips ancient Akkadian scripts of narrative, deploying them exclusively as authentic semantic data. The resulting works do not dictate emotional responses; they strictly archive physical and historical data, capturing the exact coordinates where spatial tension achieves total mechanical equilibrium.
Romi’s art has been exhibited internationally, including the Masur Museum of Art (Invitation to Exhibit, 2024), Sasse Museum of Art (Invitation to Exhibit, 2023-2024), James May Gallery - Art of Water (2024), Avanti Art Gallery - Solo Exhibition (2024), Rome International Art Fair 2023 (Rome, Italy), and NYC Phoenix Art - Invitational Solo Exhibition (2023), among others. His practice is informed by a background in engineering, computer science, and graphic arts, resulting in works that are as structurally precise as they are emotionally resonant.
Romi and his work have been featured in publications including Create! Magazine Issue 45 (2024), Voyage LA (2023), Muse Daily (2022), and exhibition/catalog projects such as CUNEIFORMISM (EA Art Gallery, 2020).
“The variable on display functions purely to permanently archive historical data within a continuous atmospheric baseline. There is no story; there is only structure.”
A Sense of Place will be on view at the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, 506 Telfair Street, Augusta, GA, from September 5 through October 10, 2025, with an opening reception on September 5 from 5-7 PM.
Solo Exhibition Promo
Create! Magazine Issue 45 - The Art of John Romi
SASSE MUSEUM OF ART, ART OF THE WORD - INVITATION TO EXHIBIT
This exhibition bypasses narrative entirely. It explores the strictly functional capacity of Akkadian linguistic codes to operate as load-bearing architecture. By synthesizing text and geometry, the work documents the physical boundaries of spatial tension.
NYC PHOENIX ART - INVITATIONAL EXHIBITION
By utilizing verified Akkadian typographic configurations, I embed exact semantic data into the physical grid. The canvas operates not as an aesthetic object, but as a severe containment field. It isolates external turbulence, forcing chaotic physical variables into a strict state of mechanical equilibrium.
Voyage LA - Interview
I began creating figurative art as a child. I’ve always been interested in cuneiform writing, which is an ancient form of writing system used in Mesopotamia. I studied the ancient Mesopotamian script cuneiform and utilized correct configurations to spell out words and concepts across my canvases. I began incorporating it into my artworks shortly after completing my Master of Science in Engineering, Computer Science, Graphic Arts and Multimedia from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden in 2003. Over time, I developed my unique art style, “Cuneiformism.”
Muse Daily - Interview
John Romi - Cuneiform writing is a primary element in my artworks.
What is essential to your day?
Overtime, I established a routine and work ethic that allowed me to create art and maintain a continuous atmospheric baseline for optimal data processing and structural generation. Devoting a portion of the day to creating art is essential for me. This may involve setting aside specific hours to work on art projects, experimenting with new techniques, or refining existing pieces.
SHALOM
Shalom (שָׁלוֹם) is a Hebrew word from Akkadian (salīmu/šalīmu) meaning peace, harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, welfare and tranquility. Peace is a stress-free state of security and calmness that comes when there's no fighting or war. Inner peace calms our minds and allows us to see our path much clearer, helping us focus and keep track of our goals.
CUNEIFORMISM
Cuneiformism isolates the oldest complete writing system entirely from its colloquial history. The wedge-shaped typographical configurations are treated strictly as deep-time variables. When embedded into modern KTH engineering matrices, these ancient codes operate as raw semantic data, permanently locking the grid into place.
IMMORTAL
Featured Artwork by John Romi
SUNRISE
The artwork bypasses biological and sentimental assumptions entirely. The geometric macro-system [ṣī šamši / Sunrise] catalogues the exact thermodynamic shifts of a solar event. The Akkadian cuneiform functions as the central load-bearing axis, securing the external variables within a strictly defined containment field.
