Untitled (circa 2012) is an original pastel on wove paper by RETNA - the moniker of Los Angeles-born artist Marquis Duriel Lewis (born 1979) - executed at the height of a period that established him as one of the most significant and distinctive voices in contemporary art. The work is a rare and intimate example of RETNA's studio practice: where his exhibited and commercially published works are predominantly monochromatic, this composition deploys a vivid multi-colour palette - neon green, hot pink, electric blue, teal, red, white, and yellow - across a warm brown wove paper ground, revealing the full chromatic range of a practice more commonly encountered in its restrained public form.

The composition deploys RETNA's signature visual language in its most immediate and unguarded register: diagonal gestural mark-making built from his hybrid calligraphic script - a system synthesising Egyptian hieroglyphics, Arabic and Hebrew calligraphy, Gothic Blackletter, and the Chicano graffiti tradition of Los Angeles - rendered in pastel with a spontaneity and physical energy that speaks of a work made for the studio rather than the wall. The mark-making is dense, layered, and rhythmically structured, each passage of colour intersecting and overlapping in a composition that rewards sustained looking. It is the visual equivalent of a musical improvisation - the same formal intelligence as his large-scale work, operating at intimate scale and with complete freedom.

The use of pastel on paper places this work within a long tradition of works on paper as primary rather than preparatory documents - works in which the artist is thinking directly on the surface rather than executing a predetermined image. For RETNA, whose practice is rooted in the immediate, physical act of mark-making, the pastel medium is entirely consistent with the spontaneous energy that defines his best work. The warm brown of the wove paper ground functions as a fifth colour - visible between and beneath the gestural marks, anchoring the composition and giving the vivid palette a warmth and depth that a white ground would not provide.

2012 represents a pivotal moment in RETNA's career - the year in which his international profile accelerated dramatically. He was commissioned by Louis Vuitton to create signage for their temporary Miami Design District boutique, completed a signature script across the tailfin of a VistaJet Global Express XRS valued at an estimated $60 million, and painted the Houston Bowery Wall in New York - one of the most prestigious sites in street art. Works from this period are held in significant private collections internationally and regularly achieve five-figure sums at auction.

This work represents a rare opportunity to acquire an original studio work on paper from one of the defining figures of the street art canon - in a format and palette that distinguishes it from everything in his public output.