Retna Show
Last night I was lucky enough to be the plus one at Retna’s The Hallelujah World Tour Exhibition. We got there before the masses and got take in the collection with patience and an undistracted eye. It was a great show and the space was perfect for it and there was no piece left without being admired. To follow the path of his brushwork and see just what a steady hand he has to not have a skip, nor flaw in the lines was just impressive, especially with the size of the pieces. The names of the pieces were just a powerful as the pieces themselves. Especially when you stepped back to really take it in.
My one word to describe the theme of the collection. Loss. The pieces along with the titles I interpreted them as phrases/phases of loss. Retna a handcrafter of the modern art of calligraphy (aka graffiti) managed to use ancient symbols/tools or writing and put out what looked like transcripts of what the titles of the pieces represented. It was like they were his reminders aka “love letters” if you will about his loss.
We got to have a convo with the artist Retna aka Marquis Lewis. This was after a couple of glasses of vino and I was a little nervous about sounding like a jackass if he asked me what I thought/got from his collection. And of course when I get nervous, I talk really fast and take on this overexcited form of myself but I had no time to think because I was put on the spot. I went into what I thought about the loss theme and how it seemed they were conversations with himself or letters that he was writing. My crazy dissertation went on for about 3 minutes, to the man who everyone wanted to talk and there was this girl just running her mouth.
Apparently, he appreciated it…all of it. From what I said about the titles and asked what I thought about most of them being in Spanish and he went on and told me about how it his process of “letting it go” for a good 5 minutes and we bonded over our new found appreciation for meditation. Then we went into this hilarious back and forth “No, thank you”, “No thank youuuuu” while the former French Editor of Vogue looked on, who was probably like “disss bish”.
Retna’s first New York solo presentation, opens today at 560 Washington Street. He’ll be a world tour and get this…each city gets their own set of paintings.
There is just something sexy about watching someone examine art. Whether its hearing them passionately break down a verse or production which they love or watching them look at a piece of art. I wonder just how they are breaking it down in their mind…what are they telling themselves. What turns them on/off about it. Its the “taste” factor.
