RETNA

Marquis Lewis (b. 1979, Los Angeles), aka RETNA, began writing graffiti as a child, and by high school he was in the storied graffiti crew LTS (Last to Serve) and executing pieces that broke with graffiti conventions, incorporating mixed media, drips, and nods to calligraphic traditions from around the world. The exhibition Contemporary Corruption, at Zero One Gallery in Los Angeles in 1999, placed his work alongside that of SABER, Chaz Bojórquez, and many other Los Angeles graffiti notables. In the early 2000s, RETNA started stealing and painting on advertising posters and developing his calligraphic work in screenprints, in textile design, and on furniture. At the same time, he joined his longtime friends in the AWR (All Writes Reserved) crew. RETNA’s loose, painterly brushwork simultaneously recalls ancient writing from Mayan, Egyptian, Hebrew, Chinese, and Japanese traditions as well as Los Angeles’s cholo writing, combining these influences to form his contemporary take on graffiti.


Art in the Streets, the first major historical exhibition of graffiti and street art organized by an American museum, surveys the origins and history of the movement in the United States and traces its influence as it spread around the world. Privacy Policy