RETNA (born Marquis Lewis 1979) is a contemporary artist, primarily recognized for graffiti art. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, and started his career in the early 1990s.
He developed a distinctive constructed script which is derived from Blackletter, Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Arabic, and Hebrew calligraphy, as well as more traditional types of street-based graffiti.
In addition to exhibiting at institutions and galleries in Los Angeles, Miami, London, New York and Hong Kong, Retna has done advertising work for brands such as VistaJet, Louis Vuitton, and Nike.
His artwork adorns the cover of Justin Bieber's Purpose album that debuted in 2015.
Born Marquis Lewis in 1979 in Los Angeles, he has African-American, Salvadoran and Cherokee ancestry.
As a child, Lewis moved between several schools in the L.A. area, becoming more involved in graffiti culture at each location.
In 1996, he chose the name Retna from a Wu-Tang Clan lyric.
Retna cites eclectic artistic influences, such as illuminated manuscripts, Renaissance imagery, and contemporary text-based art. Religious architecture and décor have long been a focus of his.
He has mentioned Degas, Klimt, Basquiat, Haring and the Art Nouveau movement as historical references. Particular to his graffiti writing, Saber and David Choe are cited as influences, among others.
Retna has developed a constructed script which he uses in much of his work. Each block of text is a system of hieroglyphs, calligraphy and illuminated script that has been influenced by Arabic calligraphy, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Hebrew, Blackletter, and Native American typographies.
His hieroglyphic style artwork has also been seen in the Lower East Side on the Rivington Street Wall near Bowery.
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