Artist: RETNA
Title: Untitled
Medium: Acrylic Painting on Lampshade
Year: c. 2010-2020
Size: 62" x 12" x 12"
Edition: Original
Documentation: Includes Gallery Certificate of Authenticity
This unique work by RETNA exemplifies the artist's commitment to reimagining language and surface through unconventional forms. Executed in black acrylic on a white lampshade, the piece reflects RETNA's signature visual language, which draws on global calligraphic traditions to create a system of abstract, symbolic script. Unlike traditional canvases, this sculptural object brings RETNA's expressive mark-making into a functional, three-dimensional format, blurring the boundary between fine art and design.
Created between 2010 and 2020, this original work stands apart in RETNA's oeuvre for its distinctive support. The tall, narrow lampshade becomes a cylindrical canvas, allowing the artist's script to wrap rhythmically around its surface. The scale and verticality of the piece echo the monumentality of RETNA's public murals, while the domestic nature of the object introduces a layer of intimacy and approachability.
This one-of-a-kind artwork is accompanied by a gallery certificate of authenticity and represents a rare example of RETNA's exploration beyond traditional formats. As an original painting on a nontraditional medium, it highlights the artist's ongoing experimentation with form, space, and the universal power of visual language.
About RETNA
RETNA (born Marquis Lewis in 1979, Los Angeles, California) is an American contemporary artist widely recognized for his distinctive script-like visual language that blends influences from calligraphy, street culture, global typographies, and fine art traditions. Emerging from the Los Angeles graffiti scene in the early 1990s, RETNA has since become an internationally acclaimed artist whose work bridges the urban environment with the refined aesthetics of gallery and institutional spaces.
Growing up in the diverse cultural landscape of Los Angeles, RETNA was exposed to a mix of linguistic systems, religious iconography, and artistic traditions from an early age. He began tagging under the name RETNA as a teenager, inspired by a lyric in a Wu-Tang Clan song. His early work as a graffiti artist quickly evolved into something more ambitious and visually complex. Over time, he developed a unique script that draws from a wide range of typographic and calligraphic sources, including Arabic, Hebrew, Gothic, East Asian, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and Native American symbols, as well as illuminated manuscripts and urban graffiti.
RETNA's signature script, while not always directly legible, evokes the appearance of language and communication. His work operates in the space between abstraction and script, inviting viewers to experience his painted words as visual music—structured yet lyrical, codified yet expressive. This fusion of influences creates a powerful sense of rhythm and mystique in his compositions, which often utilize bold geometric structure, repetition, and intricate layering.
By the early 2000s, RETNA began exhibiting in galleries and museums, gaining attention from the contemporary art world for his ability to translate the raw energy of graffiti into compelling fine art. His works range from large-scale murals and public installations to works on canvas, photography, and mixed media. He has participated in major exhibitions across the United States and internationally, with solo shows in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, London, and Hong Kong. His murals have appeared in public spaces around the world, including on the exteriors of buildings, shipping containers, and even private jets.
In 2011, RETNA gained further global recognition when he designed the typography for the cover of Justin Bieber's album Purpose. This collaboration marked a significant crossover moment, introducing RETNA's script to a broad popular audience and highlighting his work's versatility and cultural relevance.
Despite his success in commercial and fine art contexts, RETNA's practice remains deeply rooted in street culture and the tradition of graffiti as a mode of self-expression and resistance. His work often addresses themes of identity, spirituality, globalism, and cultural hybridity. He brings a reverence for history and ritual to his practice, often describing his painting process as meditative and spiritual.
RETNA's work is held in private and public collections worldwide, and he continues to push the boundaries of language, abstraction, and mark-making. Whether through monumental public murals or intimate works on paper, RETNA challenges viewers to question the nature of communication and the power of visual language.
With a career that spans continents and cultural spheres, RETNA remains a defining figure in contemporary art—a visual linguist whose work speaks to the complexity, beauty, and diversity of global culture.
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