Transforming Los Angeles into a Massive Art Installation
What Sets Us Apart
The Billboard Creative's (TBC) curated shows place mass-scale works of art on dozens of billboards throughout Los Angeles. To date, artwork in TBC’s shows, which include curated selections from emerging, mid-career, under-appreciated, as well as established artists, has been passed by cars more than 82 million
times and appeared in The Los Angeles
Times, Flaunt Magazine, Huffington Post, and L'Oeil de la Photographie among numerous other publications in addition to NPR/KCRW's Art Talk and Creators Project. Submissions are open internationally to all art disciplines - if you can put it in a digital file we can put it on a billboard.
Submissions
Selected artists will be part of The Billboard Creative's Los Angeles Billboard Expedition. TBC shows are styled like a traditional gallery show but the city becomes our walls. Billboards by participating artists have been passed by cars more than 83 million times. Strategically placed in high-traffic neighborhoods near galleries, museums, and art districts, each billboard is designed to amplify your impact.
Selected Artists
We are excited to announce the continuation of our art grant initiative. Three artists will receive $1000 each for nonspecific art grants. Everyone who submits is eligible, whether or not your work is selected for the show.
Art Grants
Mona Kuhn
Creative Director
"The Billboard Creative celebrates artists from all walks of life and creates a supportive platform for artists to share their work at the massive billboard scale with the city of Los Angeles." Mona Kuhn TBC Art Director
Artists submit through the easy to use “Call for Entries” platform. After submissions close, TBC conducts a blind-review process to select all pieces that will be included in the exhibit.
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Selected artists will receive their own billboard in Los Angeles for four consecutive weeks. TBC covers all expenses for the production, mounting, and leasing of the billboard.
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Viewers are guided through the show via a smartphone map, which provides directions for visiting board locations as well as bios and links to each artist's personal web page.
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Billboards are placed in high-traffic, art-centric neighborhoods, including locations near galleries, museums, and art districts.
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We aggressively promote our shows and participating artists have received widespread media coverage in outlets including the Huffington Post, HAF, Vice, and Site Specific, among other publications.
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All TBC show billboards are documented and images are made available to both the media and participating artists for use on social media, websites, and other communications.
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WHAT WE DO
We envisioned TBC as a traditional gallery show without constraints. Our mission is to maximize exposure of artists to curators, collectors, galleries, museums and the community at large.
Each year, our annual show is mounted on billboards across Los Angeles for a month. With the city as our gallery, each exhibit is in public view 24/7 and reaches hundreds of thousands of people.
Testimonials
Artist Dustin Steuck- 2020 Show
I have always been fascinated with popular culture, social-media and celebrity status, so having my face plastered on a billboard in Los Angeles, CA was really exciting. The original piece is a moving-image installation and the process of flattening something that was created to function in space into an image, and stretching it back into the world is intriguing. As visual artists, we are trained to make art for the gallery space and I am interested in creating work that intersects multiple points of access for viewing. Since the exhibition, I have been thinking about the commodification of 2SLGBTQIA+ identity within commercialism and how to reclaim spaces that have historically rejected or distorted our narratives. The experience has pushed me to envision different processes and materials for my practice and how my work can better reflect and engage with my community.
Artist Devaughn Hughson - 2016 Show
"There is not a better feeling then walking down the street looking up and seeing a Photograph you took hanging above the busy streets of L.A. a moment of expression on full display. Incredible."
Benjamin Phillips - 2020 Show
What a gift! Participating in the Billboard Creative’s February 2020 Show meant exposure in a premiere art city with 33 other artists in individual and highly visible public spaces. This led to the obvious and immediate benefits of praise from strangers and a measure of added street cred among other artists and gallerists, which boosted my confidence. I think the greatest take-away for me, however, was seeing my sculpture reinterpreted into a billboard-sized photograph as a public artwork; that left a profound impression on me. The shifts in scale and medium provided a novel perspective on my work to see it fresh again. That was powerful. The experience reminded me why I do what I do, regardless of where I live.
Artist Kirsten Stolle - 2018 Show
I was thrilled to see Feed, which began in my studio as an 8” x 8” black and white photograph with silkscreen, transformed into a huge and powerful image above the LA streets. I’d been thinking about increasing the scale of my work, and The Billboard Creative provided the perfect opportunity to realize this possibility. The original piece is part of a larger text-based project which examines the legacy of agrichemical companies and calls out the practice of corporate greenwashing. Feed suggests multiple meanings—Feed the corporation, Feed the narrative, Feed the global population—and allows for countless interpretations as folks drive, bus, walk, and cycle by the billboard. Big thanks to TBC and its mission of upending the ubiquitous billboard space with contemporary artists’ work that is bold, unexpected, and subversive!
Artist Luciana Abait - 2020 Show
My artwork deals with the urgency of environmental responsibility and compassion for other forms of life. Displaying my artwork at such a grand scale on a billboard, and in one of the busiest intersections in Los Angeles gave me a unique opportunity to transmit my message to the thousands of people who drive by it every day. My ultimate goal is that by seeing my work, the public will consider their role in alleviating climate change.
Artist Marybeth Rothman - 2018 Show
Since exhibiting in the Billboard Creative, I have been invited to participate in other prestigious exhibition venues. I had a solo show in NYC at The Mark Gallery and Lichtundfire, which was then featured in Musee Magazine. I will be giving a talk and presenting my work in the Emerging Artists Series 2020 at the Heckscher Museum in NY. For the month of September 2020, I will be exhibiting my portrait from the Billboard Creative along with three other works in the digital exhibition, Ad Art 2020 at the Oculus, Westfield World Trade Center, NYC which has over 350,000 visitors each day. Thank you The Billboard Creative!
Artist Rollence Patugan - 2020 Show
Identity, diversity, and "being seen" have been undercurrents in my art. Seeing my name next to my artwork depicting two strong women of color was a defining moment for me as an artist, Asian-American, and human being. The work reflects what I have always believed diversity looks like in Los Angeles but not always represented in the forefront of popular media. I felt that my voice was finally heard. The Billboard Creative offers a level playing field for artists to be recognized solely on the merits of their creativity, imagination, and execution. Converting existing billboard advertising space into art gives the public accessibility to a fine-art exhibition on a large scale. This benefits both the emerging artist and the average citizen who may not normally find themselves in a museum or gallery. I am grateful to The Billboard Creative for promoting artists and giving me the opportunity to be "seen."
