Feb
21
EL MAC collaborator RETNA, “Hallelujah World Tour” NY opening
RETNA OPENING video by Viejas del Mercado
EL MAC long time collaborator, RETNA is probably best known for his intricate text-base lines, a sort of gestural script simultaneously simple yet impossible to decipher. The symbols look like a mix between Arabic and Egyptian hieroglyphics, although RETNA maintains he writes in English and Spanish.
RETNA grew up in Los Angeles and waded into the art world by managing a major street art collective while still in high school. The 34-year-old has worked there his entire career, more recently connecting with New Image Art Gallery, where Deitch, who moved from New York to helm MOCA last year, saw his paintings at an exhibition. “I thought the work was extraordinary, some of the freshest work I had seen all year,” Deitch wrote last fall in the street art magazine Juxtapoz. And now, RETNA will be included in Art in the Streets, a large group show of street artists opening at MOCA in April. But first, RETNA opened his first New York solo show,The Hallelujah World Tour, at 560 Mercer Street on February second.
The opening was part of NY Fashion week and became one of the most anticipated and star studded events. Large scale canvases, sculptures and of course the classic detailed works on paper were some of the mediums that comprised this show and got everyone talking. The show will be touring the world with stops including London and Honk Kong. Retna opening video by Viejas del Mercado
