ROA Explores Interior Space

ROA is a Belgian native whose work is well-known enough that most people familiar with contemporary street art in even the vaguest way will recognize his work. In 2010 the landmark lawsuit to preserve his (legal) work in Hackney helped pave the way for street art preservation throughout the UK and did a lot to improve the public perception of the value of *ahem* “uncommissioned public art” in general.

ROA – Hackney

Here’s another recent piece from ROA in Shoreditch. ROA put this piece up in conjunction with an art show in London back in April of last year.

ROA – Shoreditch

Note the small addition by Montreal’s own Zilon in the bottom left…

Anyhow,  in case you hadn’t figured it out yet, ROA is really prolific, very well-known, and has work all over the world. Mostly these giant animals. I say mostly, because occasionally he does some really interesting installation work combining artwork and wunderkammer-like displays. Checking out Vandalog (as I am wont to do), I see that ROA (or is it Roa now?) has his first solo gallery show in his native Belgium, and it is indeed an installation that has more in common with a biologist’s laboratory than street art.

As we previewed on Sunday, Roa has a solo show, Stop Over, open now at BODSON-EMELINCKS in Brussels. So glad to see Roa finally getting a full-fledged solo show in his home-country of Belgium. Looks great.
– Vandalog

Here’s a shot of ROA at work setting things up:

ROA – Stop Over installation (photo by Henrik Haven)

As a collector of oddities and a lover of nature, pathology, and art (of course I have cupboards full of bones and a pile of old medical texts, who doesn’t?) I am in love with this work in too many ways to describe.  Anyone have a round-trip ticket to Brussels (location corrected, oops) they don’t need? Check out these shots of the show by Henrik Haven.

You can check out more of ROA’s work on his Tumblr blog or his Flickr feed, or see a complete slideshow of ROA’s Stop Over on Vandalog.