ROA (artist)

Last updated
ROA Mural in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Painted in 2011 in the Range of his Exhibition: "Transit", at the Skalitzers Gallery. ROA in Berlin 20011.jpg
ROA Mural in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Painted in 2011 in the Range of his Exhibition: "Transit", at the Skalitzers Gallery.
ROA's numbat in Fremantle Freopedia piccolo gnangarra -103.jpg
ROA's numbat in Fremantle
Snails, Lagos, Portugal Snails, by artist Roa, in Lagos.jpg
Snails, Lagos, Portugal
Artwork depicting birds in Katowice, Poland 015 Urban art in Katowice, Poland.jpg
Artwork depicting birds in Katowice, Poland
Chameleon in Djerbahood, Tunisia Djerbahood-Cameleon-ROA.jpg
Chameleon in Djerbahood, Tunisia
Mural by ROA (2013) in Malaga, Spain. Boceto de la obra de ROA para MAUS en el Soho (ROA, 2013).jpg
Mural by ROA (2013) in Málaga, Spain.
Chameleon by ROA (2013) in Malaga, Spain. Chameleon by ROA - Front view.jpg
Chameleon by ROA (2013) in Málaga, Spain.

ROA (born c. 1976) [1] is a graffiti and street artist from Ghent, Belgium. He has created works on the streets of cities across Europe, the United States, Australia, Asia, New Zealand and Africa. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] ROA generally paints wild or urban animals and birds that are native to the area being painted. [7] ROA usually uses a minimal color palette, such as black and white, but also creates works using vibrant colours depicting the flesh or internal systems within the animals and birds. [2]

Contents

"ROA treats each surface he paints like a space to investigate, play with, and fit his creatures into. The technical perfection of his painting belies an underlying resourcefulness with simple tools,” “The animals are matched to their location, with rats in New York City and elephants in Bangkok. There are dark and funny messages, the beauty of both life and death, universal metaphors, inside jokes, and occasional violence, but always in ways that honor the animals and the spaces where they are painted." [8]

A monograph, ROA - CODEX published in 2019 by Lannoo with text contributions by Lucy Lippard, Robert Williams and others, looks at Roa's work on four continents. [9]

Notable works by continent

Africa

In 2014, ROA contributed with several mural paintings in the Djerbahood project on the Tunisian island Djerba. [10]

Europe

In 2010, ROA painted a large bird on the side of an Indian restaurant at the intersection of Hanbury Street and Brick Lane in Tower Hamlets, London. He originally intended on it being a heron, but changed it to a crane after learning that cranes are sacred to the Bengali community. [11] [12]

In 2011 ROA came to particular notice in the UK when Hackney council threatened to paint over one of his paintings, a 3.5 m high rabbit. The rabbit had been legally painted on the wall of The Premises Studios in Hackney Road, London. [1] A campaign was launched to keep the mural, by the building's owners and local residents, forcing the council to change its mind. [13]

In 2010, ROA participated in the Cologne CityLeaks Festival and painted a mural in Ehrenfeld at Senefelderstrasse 5 [14]

In August 2012 ROA took part in the See No Evil street art festival in Bristol, England, creating a two-storey high fox on the side of a building. [15]

In 2013, ROA participated in the MAUS project in Málaga, which aimed to provide Soho, a district of the city known as "The Arts District", with a valuable legacy in contemporary cultural heritage. ROA created two artworks in this district, a graffiti of a chameleon and a mural depicting rodents trying to escape. [16] [17]

ROA's badger (2011) at Subtopia in Botkyrka, Stockholm County, Sweden. ROA badger.jpg
ROA's badger (2011) at Subtopia in Botkyrka, Stockholm County, Sweden.

North America

ROA painted a mural in Los Angeles of a rat's lifecycle at the now shuttered New Puppy Gallery in 2010. [18] The mural was whitewashed in 2022.

ROA painted a mural in El Barrio, East Harlem, New York City for the MonumentArt Festival. [19] The mural is located in Lexington Gardens on 108th Street and Lexington Avenue. [20] Typical of Roa's work, the black and white composition features several animals. The work was commissioned to celebrate the neighborhood's culture, history, and imagination. [20]

ROA is also responsible for painting "The Sleeping Bears" in Rochester, NY as part of a collaboration with local organization Wall\Therapy. The bears experienced public backlash due to their frequently lewd interpretation, and were later vandalized in the summer of 2021. [21]

ROA painted a robin bird mural at Albert's Garden on Second Street in the East Village of New York City. [22] [23]

In October 2014, ROA painted a horned lizard mural on a building in downtown Las Vegas for the Life Is Beautiful Music & Art Festival. The mural was painted over in November 2023. [24]

Oceania

In January 2014 ROA visited Dunedin in New Zealand and painted a tuatara mural on a building on Bath Street. [25]

While exhibiting works at Perth's Form Gallery, ROA was commissioned by the City of Fremantle to leave his mark on Fremantle, in about 12 hours ROA created a 25-metre (82 ft) mural of a Numbat which he chose because it is a local endangered species. [26] In 2020, ROA had a solo show at Backwoods Gallery in Melbourne, Australia. [27]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mural</span> Piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a large permanent surface

A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miss Van</span> French painter

Miss Van, also known as Vanessa Alice, is a graffiti and street artist. Miss Van started painting on the street of Toulouse alongside Mademoiselle Kat at the age of 18. Today, she is now internationally known as a street and fine artist. Primarily, her work is marked by the use of unique characters, called poupées, or dolls. Miss Van's work has appeared on streets internationally, although she also exhibits canvases in galleries across France, Europe and the United States. Today, her work is characterized by both street art and fine art, blurring the lines between both worlds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Banksy</span> Graffiti artist, political activist and painter

Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist, and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique. His works of political and social commentary have appeared on streets, walls, and bridges throughout the world. His work grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborations between artists and musicians. Banksy says that he was inspired by 3D, a graffiti artist and founding member of the musical group Massive Attack.

Thierry Noir is a French artist and muralist based in Berlin. He is considered the first artist to paint the Berlin Wall in the 1980s. He created brightly-colored paintings across large spans of the Berlin Wall and some of these original paintings can still be seen on surviving segments of the Wall in art collections and on the East Side Gallery. Noir's work and style are now considered iconic, and Noir is also regarded as one of the forerunners of the street art movement as a whole. He continues to create murals worldwide in cities including London, Los Angeles, and Sydney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Street art</span> Art that is public and temporary in public spaces

Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Choe</span> American painter (born 1976)

David Choe is an American artist, musician, actor, and former journalist and podcast host from Los Angeles. Choe's work appears in a wide variety of urban culture and entertainment contexts. He has illustrated and written for magazines including Hustler, Ray Gun and Vice. He has an ongoing relationship with the Asian pop culture website, store, and former magazine Giant Robot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tavar Zawacki</span> American abstract artist

Tavar Zawacki formerly known as 'ABOVE' is an American abstract artist living and working between Berlin, Germany and Lisbon, Portugal. For twenty years (1996–2016) Tavar Zawacki created and signed all of his artworks with his street artist pseudonym, 'ABOVE'. Tavar was born and raised in California until the age of 19, at which time, Zawacki bought a one-way flight from California to Paris, France, bringing with him a backpack full of art supplies, all the money in his bank account (US$1,500), and a 'rise above your fears' approach to starting his art career. Starting in Paris in 2000, Tavar transitioned from painting traditional letter style graffiti of A-B-O-V-E, to his 'Above arrow' icon that represented his optimistic mentality to 'rise above fears, challenges, and anything holding you back from your goals.' During a 20-year period, the artworks of ABOVE could be seen in over 80 cities spanning 35 countries around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OSGEMEOS</span> Brazilian graffiti-artist duo

OSGEMEOS are identical twin street artists Otavio Pandolfo and Gustavo Pandolfo. They started painting graffiti in 1987 and their work appears on streets and in galleries across the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Powers (artist)</span> American artist (born 1968)

Stephen J. Powers is an American contemporary artist and muralist. He is also known by the name ESPO, and Steve Powers. He lives in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Premises Studios</span> Recording studio and café in London, England

The Premises Studios is a music studio complex based near Haggerston in Hackney, London. The studio complex contains 10 commercial rehearsal studio spaces, one acoustic recording studio, one mixing studio, and various private long-let rooms and office spaces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stormie Mills</span> Australian street artist (born 1969)

Stormie Mills is a street/visual artist operating out of Perth, Western Australia. Mills' portfolio has been published in two books, Proximamente (2008) and Dwi Yma (2013).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darren Cullen (graffiti artist)</span>

Darren Cullen is a London-based professional graffiti artist who is commonly known by the tag name SER. Cullen emerged as an artist from the British graffiti art scene in the early 1980s.

In recent years, Atlanta has been called one of the USA's best cities for street art. Street artists have prominently created murals in Krog Street Tunnel, along the BeltLine, and in neighborhoods across the city. The street art conference, Living Walls, the City Speaks, originated in Atlanta in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stik</span> British graffiti artist

Stik, stylised as STIK, is a British graffiti artist based in London. Born in 1979, with no formal art school training, Stik is known for painting large stick figures that are six-lines, and two-dot figures.

eL Seed French-Tunisian artist

eL Seed, is a French Tunisian calligraphy artist and muralist, whose work feature the Arabic language through graffiti.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shamsia Hassani</span> Afghan artist (b. 1988)

Shamsia Hassani is an Afghan street artist, a fine arts lecturer, and the associate professor of Drawing and Anatomy Drawing at the Kabul University. She has popularized "street art" in the streets of Kabul and has exhibited her art in several countries including India, Iran, Germany, United States of America, Switzerland, Vietnam, Norway, Denmark, Turkey, Italy, Canada, and in diplomatic missions in Kabul. Hassani paints graffiti in Kabul to bring awareness to the war years. In 2014, Hassani was named one of FP's top 100 global thinkers. She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yazan Halwani</span> Lebanese artist and activist from Beirut

Yazan Halwani is a Lebanese artist from Beirut. Yazan is best known for his public art displays, including graffiti, murals, and sculptures. His murals can be found on buildings across Beirut, and often depict portraits of important Lebanese and Middle Eastern figures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Djerbahood</span> Street art event in Tunisia

Djerbahood was a street art event in which artists from all over the world gathered in the village of Erriadh on the Tunisian island Djerba to create 250 mural paintings. The project was established by the Itinerrance de Paris gallery in June 2014.

References

  1. 1 2 Gabbatt, Adam (25 October 2010). "ROA's graffiti rabbit faces removal by Hackney council". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  2. 1 2 "Roa @ Galerie Itinerrance". Graffiti Art Magazine. Paris. 2 February 2010. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
  3. Barnes, Sara (July 6, 2014). "Shipping Containers Painted as Cages in Powerful Series by ROA". My Modern Met. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  4. Kim, Eugene (February 9, 2011). "Urban Street Art: ROA Tears Up Mexico (11 pieces)". My Modern Met. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  5. Zhang, Jenny (October 12, 2014). "150 Street Artists Decorate Old Tunisian Village with Spectacular Murals". My Modern Met. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  6. Stewart, Jessica (April 2, 2019). "Street Artist Transforms Abandoned Factory into a "Mausoleum of Giants"". My Modern Met. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  7. "ROA at North West Walls (BE)", CityKingZ, 3 July 2014.
  8. Stewart, Jessica (January 3, 2020). "Street Artist ROA's Incredible Black and White Animal Murals Are Now Immortalized in a Book". My Modern Met. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  9. "ROA Codex". lannoopublishers.com. Lanoo Publishers. 30 April 2019. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  10. Ben Cheikh, Mehdi (2015). Djerbahood : le musée de street art à ciel ouvert. Albin Michel.
  11. "The Sacred Crane, The Flayed Pig & The Mighty Hedgehog | Spitalfields Life" . Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  12. Author, Gentle (2012). Spitalfields Life: In the Midst of Life I Woke to Find Myself Living in an Old House Beside Brick Lane in the East End of London. Saltyard. ISBN   978-1-4447-0395-5.{{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  13. Coleman, Jasmine (10 November 2010). "Council u-turn in row over ROA graffiti rabbit in Hackney Road". Hackney Gazette. Retrieved 2012-09-15.
  14. Groffman, Adam (17 March 2014). "Street Art by ROA in Cologne's Ehrenfeld Neighborhood". Travels of Adam.
  15. "Bristol's street art bonanza: See No Evil 2012 – in pictures". Guardian.co.uk. 20 August 2012. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  16. Nat (May 9, 2019). "ROA y su "fauna" en Málaga". Street Art Málaga (in Spanish). Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  17. "ROA". MAUS. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  18. Debra Levine (15 November 2010). "ROA wrangles the rats of Los Angeles". artsmeme.com. Retrieved 27 March 2022.
  19. Harrington, Jaime Rojo & Steven (2015-10-21). "'Monument Art' Murals Sing Of El Barrio in 2015". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
  20. 1 2 "11 Internationally-Known Street Artists Are Painting In East Harlem & The Bronx". Gothamist. Archived from the original on 2017-04-22. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
  21. Rafferty, Rebecca (2021-07-27). "Rochester's infamous 'Sleeping Bears' mural vandalized". City News. Retrieved 2022-01-23.
  22. "Garden History". albertsgarden.org. Albert's Garden. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  23. "35 Eerily Beautiful Animal Murals By Belgian Street Artist ROA". Gravel Magazine. June 1, 2021. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  24. Roeben, Scott (2023-11-14). ""Horned Toad" Mural Painted Over in Downtown Las Vegas". Vital Vegas. Retrieved 2023-11-14.
  25. "ROA New Mural - Dunedin, New Zealand", StreetArtNews, 24 January 2014.
  26. Catanzaro, Joseph (31 October 2011). "Artist springs mural surprise on Freo". The West Australian. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  27. "ROA: ANNIHILATION. 2020". Backwoods Gallery. Retrieved 2020-05-01.