Roa at Gallerie Itinerrance in Paris

Photo from Guillotine

Thursday evening was the opening of Roa‘s very first solo show. It took place at Gallerie Itinerrance in Paris and was, by all accounts, a massive success. In fact, after seeing these photos, I emailed the gallery for a price list only to find out that everything except Roa’s sketches and photographs had already sold! Pretty good for his first show. I’m a big fan of Roa’s artwork indoors and outdoors, so it’s great to finally see him getting the attention he deserves. Not only did Roa produce some great pieces on found wood and metal for this show, but he sprayed a number of his trademark animals onto the gallery’s walls. The man just does not stop painting, no doubt he’s out making something beautiful for Paris right now.

It might not be the most innovative thing in the world to paint on found metal and whatnot, but I still love it. And the painting below is pretty much what everybody who likes Roa wants in their house: a life sized Roa figure exactly like you might find on the street. Hopefully it actually ends up on somebody’s wall instead of their storage facility.

Photo from Guillotine
Photo from Guillotine

Continuing in the same vein as his piece in The Thousands, most of Roa’s work in Paris transforms somehow.

Photo by Vitostreet
Photo by Vitostreet

With this particular painting, you can flip the whole thing around, or just sections of it. It really adds a layer of interactivity to the piece, something not often seen in a painting.

Photo from Guillotine

And this last piece might just be my favorite in the whole show:

Photo by Vitostreet

The element of death that you can find in a lot of Roa’s work might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but this piece looks to me more like a living bird going through an MRI or something than a dead one getting cut up, and like his sketches, shows that Roa doesn’t need a spray-can to paint something that looks nice.

Photo by Vitostreet

So yeah, Roa is awesome, and I can’t wait for his next visit to London. What do you think?

Photos by Vitostreet (more on his blog) and Guillotine