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ROA Codex
• The complete 'codex' of one of the greatest street art artists in the world
• Includes text by art critic Lucy Lippard and philosopher Johan Braeckman
• Works are found on walls around the world, and in travelling exhibitions
"Although the street art is generally conveyed in a very natural matter, even his dead animal paintings seem at peace." - Streetartbio.com
"Detached from the artist's identity, his detailed, illustrative animal paintings have brought him back to the world. With local species of animals as his main focus, ROA inevitably starts a dialogue about human interaction with nature and the environment, whether it is painting on the walls of a museum or in an abandoned rural factory." - Hi Fructose - The New Contemporary Magazine
"One of the most influential acts of street art around the world." - The Huffington Post
Fascinated by nature, the anonymous muralist and street artist ROA is inspired by the beauty of its non-human inhabitants. With great attention to detail, ROA draws over-sized black and white creatures of endemic or endangered species on buildings around the world, from Moscow to Mexico City, and from Los Angeles to London. His subjects are frequently survivors; scavengers, rodents, and unusual animals that thrive in their particular milieu.
• Includes text by art critic Lucy Lippard and philosopher Johan Braeckman
• Works are found on walls around the world, and in travelling exhibitions
"Although the street art is generally conveyed in a very natural matter, even his dead animal paintings seem at peace." - Streetartbio.com
"Detached from the artist's identity, his detailed, illustrative animal paintings have brought him back to the world. With local species of animals as his main focus, ROA inevitably starts a dialogue about human interaction with nature and the environment, whether it is painting on the walls of a museum or in an abandoned rural factory." - Hi Fructose - The New Contemporary Magazine
"One of the most influential acts of street art around the world." - The Huffington Post
Fascinated by nature, the anonymous muralist and street artist ROA is inspired by the beauty of its non-human inhabitants. With great attention to detail, ROA draws over-sized black and white creatures of endemic or endangered species on buildings around the world, from Moscow to Mexico City, and from Los Angeles to London. His subjects are frequently survivors; scavengers, rodents, and unusual animals that thrive in their particular milieu.
- GenresArt
352 pages, Hardcover
Published January 6, 2020
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 10, 2026
This book sort of fell in my lap... I was helping the library move donation books that didn't sell and it was in that pile in mint condition. Thus, given its origin, I not only had no intention of reading it, but it wasn't on my radar. So I had no expectations. I had heard of the Belgian artist and seen his work online, but I hadn't even heard of the publisher (Lannoo).
It's a wonderful collection of photos of street artist ROA's work divided up by world regions he's visited (the range of his travels is astounding) and graced with his fascinating assortment of black and white wildlife in various states of living and decomposing. It's 95% imagery, but I think the few essay sections in here really elevated this to 5-stars for me as the writers selected were wonderful and served to raise quite thought-provoking questions while situating the work in greater context.
I'll share a couple passages that stood out to me and leave you with some favorite images...
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"ROA's artistic creatures live their ontological lives on the line separating Darwinism's possibilities from its limitations. They refer to reality, but cannot themselves exist in that reality. They show us what could exist, but is at the same time impossible because of scientifically demonstrable restrictions. Therein, more than in their artistic and technical perfection, lies their power." - John Braekcman & Gwenny Cooman
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"Rubberneck Manifesto by Robert Williams 1989
What is the worth of observation? Beyond the practical use of the eye for func- tioning successfully in everyday life, what are these values of simply seeing interesting things and enshrining them as art?
Nietzsche saw art as man's struggle against negative social forces by use of the imagination, which he considered a product of pure ego. Art for him was the highest form of clear lucid thought, a tool for the good. Schopenhauer envi- sioned art as a device of pleasure. Tolstoy viewed art as propaganda, and Oscar Wilde held to a doctrine of "art makes life, meaning art is sometimes more real than reality.
But there exists another factor, and here is where I state my dictum, which is the act of simply being attracted to something visually, base curiosity! The purest form of art is to give way to simple visual interest. To look at what you find yourself driven to see. Higher notions of art tend to confine art with lofty moral restrictions. When art is passed off as a quasi-religion which can only be administered and interpreted by a special order of priestly elites, the system invariably stifles imagination - even when the art is as liberal as blobs, slashes and spatters. Art that has to serve as the instrument of artistic revolution is limited by having to react to a greater force in a continual hope of some over- throw, hence becoming the tool of reaction. Even the great revolt is enslaving.
But when all predetermined prejudices are momentarily set aside and you are one of the many at the scene of the horrible accident, your libido will do the looking. Something dead in the street commands more measured units of visual investigation than 100 Mona Lisas. It isn't what you like; it's what the fuck you want to see! Art is not the slave of decoration. Hail the voyeur, the only honest connoisseur!!!
From Visual Addiction: The Art of Robert Williams, San Francisco: Last Gasp 1989"
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It's a wonderful collection of photos of street artist ROA's work divided up by world regions he's visited (the range of his travels is astounding) and graced with his fascinating assortment of black and white wildlife in various states of living and decomposing. It's 95% imagery, but I think the few essay sections in here really elevated this to 5-stars for me as the writers selected were wonderful and served to raise quite thought-provoking questions while situating the work in greater context.
I'll share a couple passages that stood out to me and leave you with some favorite images...
-----------------------------------
"ROA's artistic creatures live their ontological lives on the line separating Darwinism's possibilities from its limitations. They refer to reality, but cannot themselves exist in that reality. They show us what could exist, but is at the same time impossible because of scientifically demonstrable restrictions. Therein, more than in their artistic and technical perfection, lies their power." - John Braekcman & Gwenny Cooman
-----------------------------------
"Rubberneck Manifesto by Robert Williams 1989
What is the worth of observation? Beyond the practical use of the eye for func- tioning successfully in everyday life, what are these values of simply seeing interesting things and enshrining them as art?
Nietzsche saw art as man's struggle against negative social forces by use of the imagination, which he considered a product of pure ego. Art for him was the highest form of clear lucid thought, a tool for the good. Schopenhauer envi- sioned art as a device of pleasure. Tolstoy viewed art as propaganda, and Oscar Wilde held to a doctrine of "art makes life, meaning art is sometimes more real than reality.
But there exists another factor, and here is where I state my dictum, which is the act of simply being attracted to something visually, base curiosity! The purest form of art is to give way to simple visual interest. To look at what you find yourself driven to see. Higher notions of art tend to confine art with lofty moral restrictions. When art is passed off as a quasi-religion which can only be administered and interpreted by a special order of priestly elites, the system invariably stifles imagination - even when the art is as liberal as blobs, slashes and spatters. Art that has to serve as the instrument of artistic revolution is limited by having to react to a greater force in a continual hope of some over- throw, hence becoming the tool of reaction. Even the great revolt is enslaving.
But when all predetermined prejudices are momentarily set aside and you are one of the many at the scene of the horrible accident, your libido will do the looking. Something dead in the street commands more measured units of visual investigation than 100 Mona Lisas. It isn't what you like; it's what the fuck you want to see! Art is not the slave of decoration. Hail the voyeur, the only honest connoisseur!!!
From Visual Addiction: The Art of Robert Williams, San Francisco: Last Gasp 1989"
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