July 15, 2018
PRIMARY FLIGHT
by Retna
In 2007 Primary Flight invited 35 artists to participate in a live painting event and began to transform a "concrete landscape" roughly 30 blocks by 5 blocks into an open-air museum. The following year 80 artists participated and 150 in 2009—and for better or worse Miami's Wynwood Arts District meteoric evolution was set. In 2011 for Primary Flight's 5th edition theme of "Go Big, Or Go Home"—their final year before creative differences with Arts District leadership led them to turn their attention to downtown Miami—Los Angeles artist Marquis Lewis, aka Retna, was invited to paint this massive tribute mural on the side of the NW 23rd St Wynwood Lofts. Internationally recognized for his "constructed script"—a system of hieroglyphs, calligraphy, and illuminated script influenced by a diverse selection of cultural typographies (perhaps reflecting his own African American, El Salvadorian, and Cherokee origins)—Retna created this unique roll-call of names, celebrating those who have moved Miami visual art forward.  @retna​ @ironeyeretnaart  @wynwoodmurals Â
