RETNA American, b. 1979
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Carta mi mismo, 2025
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Disco Star, 2025
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Eastern Projects (Ex Vandals), 2025
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Eastern Realm, 2025
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Epigraph, 2025
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Every Now and Then The Owl Howls, 2025
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Golden Hour, 2025
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Green Goddess, 2025
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Indigo Dreams, 2025
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Iridescence Diptych, 2025
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Iridescence Series #1, 2025
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Iridescence Series #10, 2025
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Iridescence Series #11, 2025
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Iridescence Series #2, 2025
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Iridescence Series #4, 2025
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Iridescence Series #5, 2025
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Iridescence Series #6, 2025
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Key to the City, 2025
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Love Sequences, 2025
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Red Crushed, 2025
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Red Goddess, 2025
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Sexy and Sophisticated, 2025
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Song and Dance of the Wolves, 2025
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Straight Shooter, 2025
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Strong Arms, 2025
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The Los Angeles Weekly Classified, 2025
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Victorious Lawsuits, 2025
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Walls Come Down, 2025
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Warm Sand, 2025
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Even the Heart Skips a Beat (Black on Black), 2024
It is important to have art in the streets as a cultural fabric that is woven into the city for the upliftment of civic pride. Awareness of the Arts which every great nation and city contains is a long tradition that we are grateful to be a part of”. - RETNA
American street and graffiti artist RETNA is famous for his iconic typographic compositions, across a range of media from photography, painting, sculpture, and graffiti; all of which explore an underlying unity between different cultures. His artworks fuse visual references to fashion, various types of linguistics and calligraphy including Blackletter, Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Arabic, and Hebrew, as well as symbols from urban culture.
Marquis Lewis was born in 1979 in Los Angeles with a blended cultural heritage, being of African-American, El Salvadorian, Spaniard, Pipil and Cherokee descent. Choosing the moniker RETNA from the lyrics to a Wu-Tang Clan song, Lewis joined the buzzing graffiti scene of the city as a teenager, developing his now signature calligraphic style that features a keen attention to detail and skillful layering. The incorporation of text into his later artworks is a direct result of his background in graffiti art. The artist uses a paintbrush in addition to a spray can in order to paint intricate lines and give the finished work an intuitive and dynamic, yet precisely composed effect. Since emerging on the scene, he has been renowned for many publicly and privately commissioned murals in New York, Miami, Mexico City and Los Angeles, as well as for numerous collaborations with famous brands such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Nike and Vista Jet. His gradual transition into the contemporary art world was marked by the group exhibition Art in the Streets, hosted by the LA Museum of Contemporary Art in 2011. This was followed by an invitation by the same museum in 2013 for the artist to create an installation for the show RETNA: Para mi gente.
Another notable exhibition was The Future of the Past: Mummies and Medicine (2016) at the San Francisco Legion of Honor, showcasing a large-scale installation of RETNA’s calligraphic paintings, contextualized within ancient Egyptian culture and spirituality. His artwork was featured as the album cover of Justin Bieber’s Purpose, released in 2015. In 2016 and 2017, he was the artistic designer for the reimagined production of the famous opera AIDA at the San Francisco and Washington National Opera houses.
Among his eclectic range of influences for his contemporary text-based works, RETNA cites Renaissance imagery, medieval manuscripts, Art Nouveau and 20th century urban artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. With a practice rooted in varied typographic forms, RETNA works from a hybrid alphabet consisting of Egyptian hieroglyphs, Arabic calligraphy to Blackletter, making the content of his artworks indecipherable and enigmatic. He creates unique pictographic landscapes that celebrates the idea of multiculturalism and interconnection, while exploring the possibilities of conceptual meaning within the image, revealing new ways of understanding and perceiving visual codes.
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Retna: Love Letter | Carta De AmorSan Diego Reader, August 11, 2025 -
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RETNA Unveils "LOVE LETTER | CARTA DE AMOR" at Madison GalleryFox 5 News, August 11, 2025 -
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RETNA Unveils 'LOVE LETTER | CARTA DE AMOR' at Madison GalleryKPBS, August 11, 2025 -
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Internationally acclaimed artist explores love, loss and healing in his most intimate body of work to dateTimes of San Diego, August 11, 2025
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RETNA Unveils "LOVE LETTER | CARTA DE AMOR" at Madison GallerySolana Beach Patch, August 11, 2025 -
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RETNA Unveils "LOVE LETTER | CARTA DE AMOR" at Madison GallerySan Diego Patch, August 11, 2025 -
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RETNA Unveils “LOVE LETTER | CARTA DE AMOR” at Madison GallerySan Diego Magazine, August 11, 2025 -
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RETNA exhibition to offer a rare and personal meditation on love, loss, and healing.Mark Westall, FAD Magazine, August 7, 2025
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Carta de Amor | Madison Gallery Mural August 29, 2025Madison Gallery presents high anticipated solo exhibition from world renowned RETNA, titled Love Letter | Carta de Amor.Read more -
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CBS8 San Diego | Carta de Amor August 25, 2025Madison Gallery on South Cedros Street is gearing up to showcase the work of Southern California graffiti artist, 'RETNA.' Monday, August 25th, he painted a...Read more -
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Love Letter | Carta de Amor August 22, 2025RETNA in studio creating his highly anticipated solo exhibition with Madison Gallery, Love Letter | Carta de Amor.Read more -
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RETNA x Craigs Los Angeles Mural "A New Chapter for an LA Icon" August 4, 2025Proud to unveil a brand-new RETNA mural at Craig’s Los Angeles – a true historic landmark and a cultural touchstone for our city. This piece was created in classic RETNA style, honoring the visual language of Los Angeles and celebrating the spirit of art, community, and legacy.Read more -
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From Graffiti to Fine Art | The Kennedy Center July 11, 2025“Something wants to come out.“ In this intimate portrait, RETNA talks about his creative process and the dynamic career that's led to collaborations with Justin Bieber, Louis Vuitton, and the Washington National Opera.Read more -
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Love Letter | Carta de Amor August 13, 2025Madison Gallery, a leading contemporary art gallery in Southern California, is honored to present LOVE LETTER | CARTA DE AMOR, a powerful new solo exhibition by globally recognized contemporary artist RETNA, on view from September 3 - October 11, 2025. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, September 20, from 6-9 p.m., with the artist in attendance. Widely recognized for his iconic hieroglyphic script, large-scale public works and influential presence in both the contemporary art world and street culture, RETNA now turns his focus inward - offering a rare and personal meditation on love, loss, and healing. In CARTA DE AMOR, the artist explores the many forms of love and the redemptive power of connection. The exhibition will feature new large-scale canvases, mixed-media works, and site-specific installations that reflect RETNA’s more authentic shift in artistic intention and tone.Read more