Artist Retrospective: ROA

During this uncertain period, Street Art and outdoor murals have been halted. We will use this downtime to showcase a series of artists and the oeuvre that they have created over the last decade. We start off with ROA, the most prolific muralist the world has ever known!

ROA is a world-renowned graffiti and street artist from Ghent, Belgium. Internationally, he has created over a 1000 murals on the streets of cities across Europe, the United States, Australia, Asia, New Zealand and Africa.

At a very young age, the Belgian artist remembers wanting to be an archaeologist or something adventurous and collecting little skulls from birds and rodents to draw at home. He grew up in the eighties and naturally was inspired by the American life; music, skating and so forth. The love for music, more in particular hip-hop, quickly joined his curiosity in graffiti. Like most muralists, he began by spraying throw-ups under bridges and walls.

During his early years, Roa expressed an active, eclectic mix of styles. At the time, there was not prevailing movement in Belgium. As time went on, the scene’s evolution further evolved as foreign visitors left behind an assorted collection of talents and skills. Slowly but sure Roa became addicted to the nature of urban art.

Placement is king and ROA has always been one to place his work carefully. Each species painted is local to the location where he is working. For example a large pangolin in Cape Town or a Shark in the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. Working primarily with black, white and grey, his color palette is simple yet his style is unmistakable.

Considered as the most prolific muralist in the world with over a thousand murals, ROA continues to amaze crowds with his unique art that can express a wide range of feelings and emotions.

Below is a selection of our favorite pieces from ROA around the world.