Signed; Roa - Codex - 2019

Rare edition signed by ROA.

Les Éditions Lannoo published the first summary book on the artist ROA. Codex, a selective panorama of the famous Belgian artist’s work is divided into four chapters, each of which focuses on one of the continents where his works can be seen: Eurasia, Africa, America, and Oceania.

ROA began as a street artist by painting on buildings warehouses in his hometown of Ghent. Today, his black and white murals can be admired all over the world.

ROA is best known for his obsession with local animal species. It didn’t take long for his work, which highlights birds, rodents, and other animals in their original habitats, to garner attention. The architecture that welcomes his paintings is as important as where they are located. His images reverberate on or question the structures on which they are painted. Architectural diversity generates an infinite number of formal possibilities. ROA’s pieces represent a dialogue between the place, the environment, the architecture and his creativity. He works on the wall itself, almost never using preparatory sketches or projection.

ROA’s animals (mammals, fish, insects, but not plant elements) dominate the villages and urban countrysides where they are painted, forcing us to reflect on the animals that are too often forgotten. He prefers to showcase little known animals with whom humans share living spaces, and not typical endangered species such as elephants and tigers.

Thanks to their size and the precision of their execution, his animals acquire a triumphant aspect. They are robust and full of life, never pathetic or annihilated. ROA who was fascinated by anatomy, seems to fully inhabit the skins of the subjects and gives them life. But their visual monumentality is tinged with irony since the dominant species is not the animal kingdom but the human being.

ROA’s work encourages intercultural dialogues. “The discovery of nature, he affirms, and more specifically that of the animal world, can increase empathy. It teaches you something essential about how to lead a good life.”

ROA’s impact can only increase along with our interest in the fate of our “companions.” Dedicated scientists, embarked on a fierce race against time, discover a flora and fauna once unknown in regions threatened by corporate rapacity and local misery. The unique combination of strong aesthetics and eloquent but discreet activism makes ROA a model for artists around the world.