It is Kates-Ferri Project’s distinct pleasure to present Johnny Rozsa’s first solo exhibition in New York City, titled BLOW-JOBS - $1; WITH LIPSTICK - $5, at The B-Side, located at 563 Grand Street on New York City, between Friday, October 16 and Sunday, November 15, 2026. The reception will take place on Friday, October 16, 5:00-8:00 PM.

Transforming the white-cube Rozsa invigorates the gallery with 20+ watercolor portraits from his imagination. The faces look upon the observer as much as the viewer does. With hand-painted frames to match and respond to his sitters, the artist tailors the audience’s sensory experience visually and tactilely. 

More well-known as the famed celebrity-photographer in the 80s in London, Rozsa lives an outrageously colorful life, full of excitement and expansiveness. Throughout his time as a photographer, he would take a polaroid of people he shot, annotating how many rolls of film, the date, what they had for lunch. Some pages of these diaries are rephotographed and presented on the introductory wall of the exhibition as series of curio boxes with mixed media. Celebrities from Leigh Bowery, to Vivian Westwood, to Boy George, to Tilda Swinton, to Manolo Blahnik are featured.  

At age 77, the artist is no less courageous. Rozsa entered into this new chapter of his life five years ago, discovering painting as his new outlet for creativity. He credits his mentor Chuck Nitzberg, a fashion illustrator and teacher at the iconic Art Students League for teaching him portraiture and proper proportions, then challenging him to envision new perspectives and color combinations. Rozsa also acknowledges that there is a pulling inward in his artistic practice, from managing a whole team during photo shoots, to now working alone in a studio for hours–he is immersed in the flow of painting and bravely breaking established rules in his portraits as artists do. 

When asked what had been his inspiration for this exhibition, Rozsa noted that the watercolors are births. As the title of the show suggests, taken after Rene Ricard’s famed Blowjobs, 5 cents – with Lipstick, 25 cents (2011), a painted face is more valuable. His portraits have the attitude of people who don’t need to fit in and are centered in their norm-breaking outlook. In “Hugo” (2026, watercolor, iridescent paint and pencil on Arches on paper), a blond boy looks out into the distance with a soft focus and a sharp nosecone. It is silliness, but he is completely serious. Contrasted against a purple background, his quiet and cool demeanor shows no concern for how he might be perceived, he is collected in his knowing. Rozsa gives viewers his personal permission to step outside of society’s premade box. 

Ultimately, BLOW-JOBS - $1; WITH LIPSTICK - $5 is as much about reinvention as portraiture. Moving from photographing the famous to painting figures born from his imagination, Rozsa turns his lifelong fascination with personality, style, and self-presentation inward. He remains committed to experimentation and the freedom to break the rules. His unapologetic sitters return that invitation to the viewer: to look, be looked at, and perhaps become a little more comfortable with the person looking back.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS:

Polaroid - Pop Session
Saturday, October 24, 2026, 1–3 PM
Sit and be photographed by Johnny Rozsa for an official exhibition memento take away.

Sketch Session - Closing Program
Sunday, November 15, 2026, 12–3 PM
During the exhibition’s closing afternoon, sit for Johnny as he creates watercolor portraits.

Bio: Johnny Rozsa based in New York is best known as a photographer, specializing in fashion, portrait, and celebrity photography for four decades, starting in the mid-70s.  Since 2020, Rozsa is an accomplished watercolor painter as well.

Rozsa studied architecture, painting, and communications at Manchester College of Art and Design, and communications at Polytechnic of Central London.  Afterwards, he interned at Vogue. He later ran a vintage shop called Nostalgia in Covent Garden, where he met fashion editors, models, actors, and photographers on a daily basis.

In the late 1970s Rozsa began his photography career, working in Nairobi, London, and the U.S. Rozsa has photographed celebrities such as Hugh Grant, Boy George, Leigh Bowery, Halle Berry, Nicolas Cage, John Malkovich, and Natasha Richardson to name few. His photographs have appeared in numerous publications, including Vogue, the Sunday Times, The Observer, BLITZ, i-D, Maxim, The Face, The New York Times, and People.

His portraits of Ian Charleson, Sade, Marilyn, and Martin Degville are part of the permanent collection at the National Portrait Gallery in London. His photographs of Leigh Bowery have been exhibited in several museums, including the Tate, Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, the Kunsthalle in Vienna, and the Kunstverein in Hanover. Rozsa has also exhibited at the Venice Biennale.

Artist Statement:

I photographed everybody from the famous to the infamous and each shoot would start off with a polaroid test that would be documented in my work diaries that included each day’s schedule with doodles and notes.

The curio boxes with mixed media on view are sourced from this personal archive.

In 2020 I started painting and found that my preferred medium is watercolors – not in the washed-out way but in strong layered colors.  All my subjects are out of my imagination - portraits of sublime, free thinking spirits – with humor and joy.  On view at Kates-Ferri Projects is a series of these portraits with hand painted frames with ornate patterns that were inspired by my travels to Morocco.

CV:

Photographic Portraits in National Portrait Gallery, permanent collection “Twenty For Today” London 1990.

“Leigh Bowery” at Bilbao Museum, Spain June 2002.

“Men In Skirts” at Victoria & Albert Museum London England September 2002

“Take A Bowery” Dec 2003-Mar 2004 at
Museum Of Contemporary Art, Sydney Australia

Exhibited in a touring photo show with Leigh Bowery images in Spain 2005

Exhibited photographs in the Venice Biennale Summer 2006

“PUNK No One is innocent” at Vienna Kunsthalle 2008

Leigh Bowery show/catalogue Hannover Germany 2008

Solo Photography Exhibition at Christopher Henry Gallery Elizabeth Street NYC October, November 2010

Published a monograph of Celebrity portraits “UNTOUCHED” by Glitterati, New York 2010

“QueerfromZerotoOneHundred” atTNCGalleryNY2011.Photocollages

Fergus Greer and Johnny Rozsa “About Leigh Bowery” at Camera 16 Contemporary Art Gallery 2012

EXTRAVAGANZA March –April 2012 at Vienna Kusthalle

Leigh Bowery at Tate Museum, London 2025

Compass Point, Group show of watercolors, Gallery Kent, Tangier Mprocco

KFP The B-Side, Solo show of Polaroids and watercolors, NYC 2026

Exhibition Catalogue‍ ‍

Video of exhibition on YouTube ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍