xaRETNA: Rewriting Los Angeles through Art and Fire
Artist RETNA reimagines loss through a new series of works and short documentary.
Los Angeles, CA — RETNA’s latest work emerges from the devastation left by this year’s wildfires, which swept through Los Angeles County in January, forcing over 200,000 residents to evacuate and reducing entire neighborhoods to ash.
Among the countless losses was the home and art collection of Jill and Gregg Adams, longtime patrons of the arts, whose residence in the Palisades was consumed by flames, along with three original works by RETNA.
In the weeks that followed, the Adamses, along with the artist, returned to the charred ruins of their home. Rather than accept the loss, they gathered ash and debris from the site and brought these fragments to RETNA’s studio. From this material, he created Script of the Flame, a series of three new paintings forged from the remains of the originals.
One of the paintings will be given back to Jill and Gregg Adams. The other two will be sold, with a portion of the proceeds donated to wildfire recovery efforts in Los Angeles.
RETNA’s signature script moves through overlapping systems: part language, part abstraction. Drawn from Arabic, Hebrew, Egyptian, and Old English letterforms, his glyphs took shape in the alleys and avenues of Los Angeles, evolving into a visual system that resists translation but insists on meaning. In his new series, that system takes on the material conditions of loss. Ash moves into the linework. Fire becomes part of the surface.
As Los Angeles continues to recover, Script of the Flame holds the weight of what was lost without reaching for closure. Each piece marks a return to place and to the physical effort of making meaning from what remains.
The Core Art Gallery presents these pieces alongside a short documentary that follows RETNA from the burn site to the studio. This footage captures the labor of recovery and chronicles how an artist and a city’s inhabitants begin again.
About the Artist
Los Angeles-based artist RETNA accesses spaces between text-based imagery and abstract emotive states with his mysterious lines of verse. Each block of text is a sophisticated system of hieroglyphs, calligraphy, and illuminated script. With influences from Arabic, Egyptian, Hebrew, Anglo-Saxon (or Old English), and Native American typographies, RETNA’s distinctive language communicates a personal form of poetry. RETNA’s messages are masked in ciphers: words and meanings that are never immediately revealed nor capable of being accurately translated. He employs ancient totemic symbologies as a baseline, overlaid with beats from the urban jungle (sourced from his background in Los Angeles, born from Pipil—western indigenous El Salvadorian—Cherokee, Spaniard, and African-American bloodlines. These diverse subcultures are channeled into his work, often accompanied (either in the studio or on the street) by a stream of ambient or musical sounds. It is this multi-sensory experience that is brushed onto the surface for RETNA: a synthesis of auditory and visual content spontaneously manifested.
RETNA (Marquis Duriel Lewis) was born in 1979 in Los Angeles. At the age of fifteen, he began painting on posted fashion advertisements and, from there, led one of the largest and most innovative graffiti art collectives in the city. In addition to exhibiting at institutions and galleries in Los Angeles (including the façade of The Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art’s Grand Avenue location for their 2013 Gala celebrating the blockbuster exhibition Art In The Streets), Miami, London, New York (including the prestigious public exhibition space of the Houston-Bowery Wall), and Hong Kong, RETNA has created exclusive collaborations with brands such as VistaJet, Nike, Louis Vuitton, and Chanel. RETNA lives and works in Los Angeles.
About The Core Art Gallery
The Core proudly curates a diverse collection, featuring the works of renowned artists and emerging talents across a wide range of mediums. From painting and sculpture to photography, The Core gallery celebrates the intersection of tradition and innovation. Discover compelling stories and creativity in every piece.
This innovative gallery pioneers a new era of art exhibitions with pop-up showcases in unconventional spaces. From studio warehouses to members clubs, these exhibitions defy the traditional boundaries of white-wall gallery spaces, inviting diverse audiences to experience art in unexpected and thought-provoking ways.
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