Yesterday at The Old Diary warehouse space, the LA graffiti artist RETNA (MSK-AWR crews) had his London exhibition after the one in New York of few months ago. “The Halleluja world tour” is supported by the duo Andy Valmorbida and Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld (the son of the ex Editor in Chief of Vogue Paris, Carine Roitfield). The artist pieces were presented in a very large mediums, most on canvas, some on ink on handmade paper. Personally I really like the works of this graffiti artist, that seems to be one of the most prolific in the street-contemporary art scene. A lot of people came to the show including english super models Lily Donaldson and Edie Cambell, the new Burberry face, and socialite Julia Restoin Roitfield.

I had the opportunity to meet the other writers who came to the event including the Brighton based AROE (MSK-Heavy Artillery). Coming from a graffiti background is always good to me to see all these writers arriving to do their things in the big galleries and be recognised in the contemporary art scene.

All photos by Butterflies and Hurricanes

SOURCE: http://www.livincool.com/gallery/retna-the-halleluja-world-tour-london-8th-june-2011

By Emily Cronin | Posted: Thu 09 Jun 2011

The style set turned out for last night’s RETNA exhibition opening…

Thank you, Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld, for infusing ye olde midweek gallery opening with a frisson of fashion industry glamour. The Roitfeld scion, now accomplished as a contemporary art curator, flung open the doors to an exhibition of work by artist RETNA at The Old Dairy in London last night.

The Hallelujah World Tour opening attracted a cross-section of fashion and art-world heavies: models Edie Campbell, Lily Donaldson and Tolula Adeyemi; and designers Daniella Helayel, Kinder Aggugini and Danielle Scutt all made appearances. Serpentine Gallery Co-Director Julia Peyton-Jones lent art-world cred, while Julia Restoin-Roitfeld and boyfriend Robert Konjic toasted the curator. Caroline Sieber, Alison Mosshart, Dominic Jones… you get the idea.

RETNA, a Los Angeles based artist, creates graffiti-inspired canvases and murals. The London show follows a successful exhibition in New York. Next, it’s off to Hong Kong. But not before some sure-to-be-packed parties…

See all the stars from last night’s party

SOURCE: http://www.elleuk.com/news/fashion-news/the-hallelujah-party/%28gid%29/776757

Retna has been keeping himself busy recently — among other things, by participating in the Art in the Streets exhibition at MOCA, Street Cred at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, and painting the tail of a business jet in Geneva for VistaJet. He’s currently in the UK for the London limb of his Hallelujah World Tour which began in New York City in February (featured). The pop-up event is being held at the Dairy, with the opening taking place on the evening of Wednesday 8 June and the show scheduled to run until 27 June.

AM did an 18-hour stint with the artist as he finished off his last canvases and preparations were being finalised. We can safely say that it wasn’t a dull experience. See a few teaser photos after the jump.

See more photos at Arrested Motion

SOURCE: http://arrestedmotion.com/2011/06/set-up-teasers-retna-the-hallelujah-world-tour-london-the-dairy/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=set-up-teasers-retna-the-hallelujah-world-tour-london-the-dairy

VistaJet unveils unique work of art by artist RETNA on the tail of one of its Global Express XRS aircraft during EBACE 2011 in Geneva.

by Fabiola Beracasa
on April 18, 2011 - 2:33 PM

While in LA for ELLE’s Women in Music party, I took a minute to catch up with Retna, the breakout LA street artist who’s among the lucky few chosen by Jeffrey Deitch for MOCA’s Art in the Streets show. Retna, aka Marquis Lewis, has a heart warming smile to offset his devilish glances, and happily told us how he grew from a “graffiti artist” and landed in one of the most important street art shows to date.

ELLE: When did you know this was your calling ?
R: I liked graffiti when I was about eight-years-old, but it wasn’t really called street art at that time, it was just graffiti. When I first saw it I knew that was what I wanted to do I just never really thought that it would turn into a career, you know? I just did it because it made me feel good, or it made me happy when I looked at it, but I never would’ve thought of where it would go…

ELLE: When did it turn from something that you loved, and did passionately, to something you could actually live off of?
R: I think that was maybe the past seven years. [I] got into design, my first forays into actually making money off this or being able to make somewhat of a living off this was designing graphics for clothing companies. So I was designing for this Japanese brand doing some cut and sew stuff; I think at that point I saw, “Hey I can do these graphics, and you know I can pay for other stuff that I want to do,” and then little jobs just started carrying on and it kind of kept leading to other things. I did a lot of stuff just from the heart for free for the longest time and, well, you do things because you want to do them and you don’t want to sit around and wait for people to pay you. You think, “Well fuck, I’ll just go make it happen.”

ELLE: What does it feel like to be part of Jeffrey Deitch’s Street Art Exhibition?
R: It feels great. I’m really excited to be a part of it, it’s definitely a little overwhelming [as] it’s my first museum showing. It seems like it came a lot earlier than I expected. As a kid you want those institutions to recognize you and make you feel like you’re important. I acknowledge [Jeffrey's] commitment to what we do and I’m really honored to be a part of it. It’s exciting to be in a show with all of these people that you grew up looking up to and it’s kind of mind blowing. I would’ve never thought that they’d come visit me at my studio when I was eight-years-old, looking at these books that they were in. They’re the greatest people and then to be around them and to actually exhibit with them, it’s kind of something unreal.

ELLE: There’s always that argument that when you move the graffiti, the street art indoors, into a museum into a gallery, it loses something. How do you feel about that?
R: That’s all on the person viewing it. I think what’s great about that movement is that some guys still do both… so I think the idea early on with graffiti or street artists was you always want things that you can’t have, you always want to be in that spots that you can’t be in or you know people don’t want you to be in—so when we wanted to climb and paint this building we needed to figure out a way to go do it—so I think with the museum it’s just another aspect of that same mentality. We wanted to be in there, so we figured out how to get in the door and put our stuff all over it. Or, a couple [of] people crack the door and then the flood gates [open]. I feel that if it wasn’t for all of those, my predecessors doing all of the early work from the 70s and 80s and 90s and what have you, I wouldn’t be able to be there.

ELLE: You’ve worked with fashion companies before, how does fashion influence your art? Or do you feel that there is a correlation for you?
R: I’ve been heavily influenced by fashion, and a lot of that work was influenced by like Art Nouveau and stuff like that. It still relates to some of my other work where I do matadors and bishops and these pieces where the clothing is just a little bit older, but I’m still kind of following along those same lines. I obviously love and enjoy looking at fashion magazines, mostly women’s fashion, not really interested in men’s fashion so much. I just think it looks great and it’s art.

ELLE: Did you ever get in trouble for doing graffiti?
R: Yeah, I’ve been arrested a good amount of times. My mother was just devastated. She came here from El Salvador, worked two jobs and tried to send me to some of the best schools and I gravitated toward graffiti early on. So for her it just hurt, it was really a disappointment. She loves it now. She’s more protective of the work. She used to throw away a lot of my work early on, but that’s also what made me better. She was my biggest critic at the time.

ELLE: Where do you see Retna going from here?
R: In my mind’s eye? To the end I guess… yeah, till the end of time…

SOURCE: http://fashion.elle.com/culture/2011/04/18/retna-talks-moca-graffiti-fashion/

For more info visit www.theboneyardproject.com

An inscrutable message in powerful white letters is scrawled in the center of a square canvas, leaping out from a dark, cross-hatched background of Arabic-style writing. A gallery floor is covered with white dots, circles, and checks, while massive black vertical and diagonal banners cleave the walls into a chaotic series of geometric shapes. An abandoned house is spray painted with a seemingly infinite series of X’s and boxes, making it look as if it’s caged in wire mesh. Writing is more than just words on a page to Los Angeles-based artist Retna. The curves and angles of letters represent another medium for the 31-year-old graffiti virtuoso, who covers small canvases and enormous warehouses alike with intricate designs based on Asian calligraphy, Incan and Egyptian hieroglyphics, Hebrew and Arabic script, and the Old English style of gang tagging. “The Hallelujah World Tour,” Retna’s first New York solo presentation, opens at 560 Washington Street on Friday, February 11.

Retna, whose real name is Marquis Lewis, began incorporating writing-influenced design patterns into his work in the mid- to late-’90s, as a steady stream of news about tension in the Middle East exposed him to the beauty of Arabic and Hebrew writing. His early works featured patterns based on both languages, often surrounding stylized portraits. Over time, he incorporated Asian calligraphy and South American and Egyptian glyphs, transforming the written languages of ancient cultures into an intriguing new form of contemporary art.

This show, which is presented by Andy Valmorbida and Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld and sponsored by Bombardier Business Aircraft and VistaJet, features more than 30 of Retna’s pieces, many of which deal with death and the lives of people he’s been inspired by. In a telephone interview last week, Retna discussed his influences, goals, and the true meaning of Hallelujah.

BlackBook: How did you start using foreign writing in your paintings?
Retna: I’m a graffiti writer, so I’m a fan of writing and I find it very beautiful. A lot of my earlier work had to do with what was happening in the news about the Middle East, so the Arabic and Hebrew writing found its way into my work.

What kind of work can people expect at 560 Washington Street?
It’s a collection of paintings I brought with me. A lot of what I write has to do with death and waiting for that time, and for people who have passed away. They’re reminders, conversations that I have with myself. They’re not meant to scare people, but at the same time they’re not meant for too many people to understand. I acknowledge things that have happened.

This is the first stop on your world tour. Will other cities get the same collection of paintings?
Each city gets their own batch of paintings. I think New York is a strong city so I give you the stronger shit, the stuff that means the most to me. It has to do with death, pain, and struggle. Friends of mine who have been killed or killed themselves. I give New York what I expect New York to give me back.

Your work shows influences from many different cultures, often in the same piece. Where does your own culture come in?
I’ve been influenced by the world, really, but I never completely fit in anywhere myself. I want people to take away something from their own culture in my work.

This collection doesn’t feature any portraits, but I was wondering how you decide who to feature and how to paint them.
It’s kind of hard for me to answer that. They’re spiritual, they’re strong. There’s a little bit of vulnerability but not too much. A lot of them deal with women who are powerful and elegant. I’m influenced by Art Nouveau and Gustav Klimpt, and what I do is a stylized version of that. I’ll also paint homeless people or gangsters because I’m just attracted to people in general. If something about them fascinates me I’ll paint a portrait or a mural.

So there’s a lot of pain in this collection?
It’s text-based conversations about death, yeah. You can tell New York I apologize for that. I don’t mean it in a bad way, but it’s something that means a lot to me, something I’m working through, a meditation process where I tell these people I won’t ever forget what they meant to me and the impact they’ve had on my life. I don’t expect my pain to be someone else’s burden, but I can’t help if people take it that way.

Do you believe in an afterlife?
No one really has the answer, but I want to think that there’s an afterlife, and I do. I plan on getting back with a couple of friends. We have some things to attend to. Maybe if I believe it strongly enough, I’ll actually get it.

Where did the name come from? What does Hallelujah mean to you?
I actually didn’t come up with it, it’s from the show organizers. The “Hallelujah World Tour” sounded strange to me at first because the world tour part was weird. But hallelujah means joy and thanks, and I have taken a lot from this world and this culture, so it was time I acknowledged it. You can’t take take take all the time. At some point you have to give back. And maybe it was to make people happy. Hallelujah. It’s a good word and I didn’t want to do it a disservice. If I can be honest in the work I can have the good fortune to use that word as the title of the show.

What have you been doing in New York besides working on this installation?
I went to the George Condo show at the New Museum, which was good. And other than that I’ve been absorbing all the great arts and culture that the city has to offer. And I did go to the Rose Bar & Jade Bar the other night at the Gramercy Park Hotel which was cool, with Basquiats and Hirsts on the walls. I like lounges because they’re mellow. I’m so tired by the end of the day I just want to have a drink and chill.

Source: http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/graffiti-artist-retnas-world-of-words/24759

The Art of Art

It was an evening of superlatives. Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld, the youngest of Carine Roitfeld’s progeny, and his longtime friend, Andy Valmorbida, presented the RETNA The Hallelujah World Tour in New York on February 10, 2011. The artistic showplace for this, the first solo presentation of Roitfeld and Valmorbida, was a warehouse located in the insider section of the Meatpacking District. Art and fashion connoisseurs gathered on the artistic scene, there were fashion photographer Inez Van Lamsweerde, Carine Roitfeld, Stella Schnabel and Mario Testino among others. “prepare yourself” Zip Magazine was also there for the party and met Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld for an interview.

Interview by Katja Schmolka

K.S: You hold a Degree from the University of Southern California Film School, and worked as Assistant Producer for Paramount Pictures after graduation. Why the change from film to the world of art?

V.R: Art has always interested me. For me, film and art are inseparable - they simply belong together. The art scene in California has developed quite a bit in the past few years so I got the idea, together with my friend Andy Valmorbida, to present talented artists.

K.S: What does the selection criteria look like for the artists you present?

V.R: It takes time of course. We work on a very limited basis with just a few artists. RETNA is a fixture on the Los Angeles art scene and has also already done over 30 international exhibitions-that got our vote for him.

K.S: Where will the next exhibition of the RETNA Hallelujah World World Tour be held?

V.R: The exhibition will also appear in Milan and Paris. Then in April of 2011 we’ll see a sampling as part of a project! We are working together with Bombardier Business Aircraft and VistaJet on this project. RETNA is transforming the back section of VistaJet’s Global Express XRS using his artistic lettering. This exclusive jet will be a work of art within a work of art so to say and will fly New York to Moscow or London to Mumbai non-stop. It’s art at over 50,000 feet!

K.S: Thank you for the interview.
SOURCE: http://www.zip-magazine.com/2011/03/interview-vladimir-restoin-roitfeld-presents-the-retna-hallelujah-world-tour-in-new-york/