Retna, nee Marquis Lewis, was born in Los Angeles. In the mid nineties, Retna's work appeared on walls, trains, bridges and freeway overpasses throughout L.A. When the school of Museum of Fine Arts in Boston offered him a full scholorship, he turned it down for the fear of losing the hard-won street surfaces he had claimed on the west coast. Though it's a move he has questioned in retrospect, the decision hasn't hampered his vision or success.

In 1997, a friend said this to Retna about his sketchbook: "That thing's a waste of time. Here - paint on this."

He handed Retna a magazine ad - and the artist's one-of-a-kind product was born. The final piece layered time and color, couture and street culture, the spiritual and the sensual, fluidity and grit.

Three weeks later, Retna was flying to New York to participate in Guernseys Graffiti art auction where his pieces were hung between graffiti legends Keith Haring and Dondi.

Retna is no stranger to pop-cultural luminaries. One of his pieces - a Marvin Gaye painting - apperared in an MTV Cribs episode featuring R&B artist Usher's home. (The singer has since commissioned two more pieces: a Sade and a "Retna-fied" Miles Davis.) Retna also appeared on the Video Music Awards alongside Metallica, where he created one of his signature pieces live on stage. The artist added dimension to the Kylie Mynogue video "Red Blooded Woman" via 20 x 20-feet enlargements of his work on clear plexiglass, and will offer backdrop art for Will Smith's new video, Switch.

By "borrowing" a poster-size advertisement, amplifying the photograph with color and claiming it as his own, Retna mirrors visually the compositional approaches of some of the musicians who seek out his work. He merges Mayan, Egyptian, and Asian motifs with contemporary imagery, prompting the onlooker to ask, "Am I viewing the past? Is this a version of the future? Or is this my day, my culture, wearing a shade of lipstick that tastes like the street?"

In his newer pieces, Retna is involved with every "layer" of the work, collaborating with photographers to create the original image. Retna has also designed clothes for the Japanese line Sarcastic, and for The Seventh Letter. From Beverly Hills hotels and Sunset boutiques to music videos and installations in Japan, New York, Milan, Las Vegas, Australia and San Francisco, Retna will continue to amplify images, layer visions, and leave his mark in multiform ways.