RETNA “The Hallelujah World Tour” (2011). All photos by Art Observed

In the 1980’s Jean-Michel Basquiat became one of the most significant artists of that decade and those that followed in part through his art being recontextualized by his travels from the gritty world of the street into the paths of the wealthy, famous and fashionable.  Many years later, the fashion and media elite diligently cultivate a similar paradigm, and in a scale that is immediately as grand a display as it ever was in the time of Basquiat.  What is notable here perhaps however, in RETNA’s recent exhibition, is that rather than the artist being serendipitously integrated with the scene, the scene is now constructed in formidable scope and scale and seems to plug the artist in.  The result is something that, if not significant for the art itself, is considerable as a reflection of how art can be marketed.

The New York debut of LA – based street artist and muralist RETNA’s exhibition “The Hallelujah World Tour” in the West Village on Thursday night, opened to a spectacle worthy of its positioning during fashion week, drawing a packed and trendy crowd to the warehouse space located almost at the water’s edge. Returning from a sold-out show in Art Basel Miami Beach (also likely the world nexus of art merging with fashion and commerce), RETNA’s work was here received by a diverse mob of invited New York insiders who were able to be granted access by the best in class, and no doubt expensive, PR teams checking in attendees at the door.

more images and story after the jump…

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