DALLAS, TX.- If you’ve ever visited an established artist’s longtime studio, you have essentially taken a walk through the artist’s brain. Maybe his very soul. Not only will you likely encounter completed works, but you’ll also see all the moving, working parts of his process, as well as the things that influence and matter to him. You’ll probably see works and ephemera by and about his peers and the luminaries who have most impacted his own work, some of which came to the artist through trades, and some from his personal collecting acumen. The artist RETNA, whose name is nearly synonymous with downtown Los Angeles and its ever-evolving art scene, occupied a big studio in the city for more than a recent decade that served not only as his laboratory (and sometimes his home) but also as a living testament to his passions and process, and as a stomping ground for his peers. On January 30, Heritage presents the contents of this storied artist’s studio — which includes museum-quality works — in its RETNA: Signs and Symbols Part 1 Urban Art Auction, and serves as a portal into RETNA’s creative spirit and ethos. The works in the auction make up the very heart of his working studio, which came to Heritage via a legal process.

The impressive selection of RETNA’s prints, prime-time career paintings and works on paper, as well as works by and about his peers and influences, is being conducted as an abandoned property sale in accordance with California Civil Code §§1980 et seq., and it offers RETNA’s fans and collectors a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dive into the artist’s inner world. When viewed as a whole, the 166 lots, all of which are offered with no reserve, paint a picture of RETNA’s rise through the international art world from his hometown base.

Born Marquis Lewis in 1979, RETNA grew up in Mid-City Los Angeles and entered the scene as a graffiti and street artist who quickly cultivated his distinctive aesthetic and vernacular — a kind of bold and coded script informed by not only traditional urban graffiti but also Arabic and Hebrew calligraphy and ancient Egyptian and old-world hieroglyphics. The selection of RETNA’s finished paintings on canvas as well as his sculptures offers what is essentially an enviable exhibition of the artist’s works at the height of his power, while also presenting his works on paper alongside works by some of RETNA’s favorite artists and friends. It is a treasure trove for both dedicated Urban Art enthusiasts as well as those new to collecting.

“This auction offers a rare and intimate journey into the creative universe of RETNA,” says Taylor Curry, Heritage’s Director of Modern & Contemporary Art in New York. “From his iconic canvases to the personal treasures he surrounded himself with, each piece tells a story of an artist who transformed calligraphy and urban art into a language uniquely his own. This is more than an auction — it's an opportunity to step inside the mind of a cultural trailblazer and celebrate the symbols that define his legacy.”

This studio-contents auction, which is the first of several that will take place throughout 2025, is anchored by RETNA’s own finished canvases and unique works on paper. Emblematic of the quality of the selection are works like 2013’s Streamlines (oil, acrylic, and thread on canvas), beautifully composed and fully resolved, with the artist’s hand evident in the various processes that bring it to life; it is joined by such treasures as this untitled acrylic, spray paint, thread on canvas that pushes the artist’s script-like vernacular into territory that reflects RETNA’s admiration for legend Keith Haring. An untitled monochrome mixed media work on wood panel glows with an authoritative Art Deco architectural quality. An untitled watercolor, acrylic and oil stick on wove paper showcases RETNA’s playful prowess as an accomplished formalist with a progressive edge. These are just a few of the works offered in the auction that prove RETNA’s rightful place in the pantheon of favorite American Urban artists.

Joining his 2-D works is a selection of his achievements in three dimensions: Four of RETNA’s lively earthenware clay critters, with their prominent toothy grins and wagging tongues, are presented alongside his Japanese-style floor lamp whose shade RETNA hand-painted with his familiar brushstrokes.

Another highlight of this auction is the selection of works and documentation by and of artists beloved by RETNA — his collaborators and his friends. The studio was a hub of downtown Los Angeles art making (even as the neighborhood has gentrified to such an extent that a new outpost of Soho House has opened right down the block). A 2007 photographic portrait of Damien Hirst by Sante d'Orazio, titled Priests, is a chromogenic print adorned with spray paint, oil and pastel; fabulous early works by Chaz Bojorquez, including a 2001 screenprint titled Chino Latino, are the kind of gems that RETNA gathered about him in the years he lived and worked in the space. RETNA’s love of the aforementioned Keith Haring is evident in the photographs of the late Haring at work both in and out of his New York City studio (the latter was snapped as Haring worked high up the side of a building on the Bowery). There are significant works by artists such as Arlene Gottfried, Judith Supine, R. Shah and Monica Kim Garza among others. Bracing photographs by Miron Zownir and Robert Mapplethorpe are a testament to RETNA’s profound appreciation of a downtown New York scene that dominated on the coast opposite of Los Angeles’. A 1975 photograph by Kim Gottlieb-Walker shows us the moment George Harrison met Bob Marley backstage at the famed nightclub The Roxy, and brings the focus back to RETNA’s home base of Los Angeles.

Speaking of which, a touching lot in the event is a vintage street sign from the central Los Angeles neighborhood Mid-City, where RETNA grew up. (Someone has tagged it.) It is precisely this type of personal object that an artist wants in his studio, a symbolic slice of his origin story as he launches into the stratosphere. The presence of this beat-up sign is a fantastic representation of this auction event as a whole: These are the things, the stories, the symbols, the works that make RETNA RETNA and helped shape one of the most recognized figures of American Urban Art.