RETNA — Marquis Lewis, b. 1979 — is a Los Angeles-born artist whose constructed script has made him one of the most immediately recognisable painters working in any tradition today. His visual language draws on Egyptian hieroglyphics, Arabic calligraphy, Hebrew typography, and the graffiti culture of East Los Angeles, synthesising these sources into a system of marks that is simultaneously ancient and entirely contemporary — readable as rhythm and energy even when the specific symbols resist literal translation.
He came to prominence through the Los Angeles street art scene before his work crossed into the institutional and commercial worlds with a speed that few artists achieve. Collaborations with Louis Vuitton, Nike, and Chanel brought his visual language to a global audience; a commission for the VistaJet tailfin placed it at 40,000 feet; his design for Justin Bieber's Journals album cover made it one of the most widely reproduced images of 2013. The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles holds his work in its permanent collection.
At monumental scale — the three-metre canvas available through Creed Gallery is among the most significant examples of his large-format work — RETNA's constructed script achieves the quality he has always been pursuing: immersion. The viewer does not stand outside the painting and look at it. They enter it.
His stone lithographs and works on paper bring the same visual intelligence to a more intimate format, making his language accessible to collectors who respond to the work at closer range. Available through Creed Gallery, Ascot, for collectors across Berkshire, Surrey, Sunningdale, Virginia Water, and London.
