Los Angeles 2023
Billboard Exhibition

Calling all artists

Submissions now open for the 10th annual Los Angeles Billboard Exhibition

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 67 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 Open
Deadline 9/17/ 2023 - Midnight MST
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"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

Selected Artists
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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. To date, the show has also earned coverage in Hyperallergic, Flaunt Magazine, the Huffington Post, NPR, and The Creators Project among other publications.

Art Grants

This year 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.
Submit Work

For 10 years, The Billboard Creative has been dedicated to helping artists break barriers through exposure, publicity, and lots of hard work.

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."

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 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 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!

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 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."

Artist Jona Frank - 2020 Show

We need art that makes people pause in the midst of their everyday and think. I loved being part of the 2020 Billboard Exhibition because it made the whole city a gallery.  The idea of placing art in the public realm, on a canvas that is typically used to advertise products and services, encourages people to look at their world differently. I welcome any opportunity that interrupts our daily routine and makes us question why that suburban house is exploding or would they have taken a selfie at the Last Supper or are billionaires really people, too? We get comfortable with this idea that we go to see art, but art is everywhere, everyday, and I love that the Billboard Creative reminds us to wake up and look for it.

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 Dennis Neal Vaughn - 2018 Show

Exposure of my photography through the Billboard Creative was on a level that you cannot get through a gallery or many art venues.

TBC| Current Grant Awardees

The exhibition also marks the inaugural Billboard Creative artist grants. Three artists received nonspecific cash awards.

Werllayne Nunes

challenges the ways in which the media typically portray people who are marginalized because of their race and socioeconomic status.
More Info

Gail Postal

uses old Japanese black-and-white images that were hand-tinted and Russian Orthodox icons as her main inspirations.
More Info

Lola del Fresno

creates large-scale works using a variety of mediums that actively engage the public and include the viewer as an integral part of the work.
More Info
We work with some of the leading art PR companies like Third Eye and See Speak Hear to promote your work and the show.

Guest Artists
Program

Each of our exhibitions are headlined by one or more acclaimed guest artists. In addition to having their work featured on billboards throughout Los Angeles, the guest artists help raise awareness and increase exposure for other TBC participants. Past guest artists have included Phung Huynh, Paul McCarthy, Marilyn Minter, Narsiso Martinez, Alex Prager,Calida Rawles, and Ed Ruscha, Laurie Simmons, and Lawrence Weiner.

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.
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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.

Example of map from our last show.

Meet Some Of Our Past Curators

Victoria Burns

For more than 30 years Victoria Burns has advised new and experienced collectors and corporations on building significant art collections. 

Cey Adams

Cey Adams emerged from the NYC graffiti movement to exhibit alongside fellow artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring.

Andrea Blanch

Founder / Editor In Chief
of Musée Magazine

Christopher Vroom

Founder of Artadia, Art+Culture Projects and Artspace.com

Mona Khun

Kuhn’s work is in private and public collections worldwide, including The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Hammer Museum

Dee deLara

Creative and Marketing Director at Bomb Projects

‍Huffington Post | Tricia Tongco
‍What’s so special about The Billboard Creative project is the fact that it turns the city of Los Angeles into a gallery. Besides the amazing exposure that it gives to all the artists work, it also offers a break from all the visual noise created by the endless advertising,
Creators Project | Sami Emory
‍Arts organization The Billboard Creative has teamed up with over 40 artists, including Paul McCarthy and Alex Prager to make art history through a traditional advertising medium.
Art Talk | Edward Goldman
‍And here is another cultural happening in Our City of Angels that will lift our collective spirit in more ways than one. To be specific, there are 33 artworks that started popping up around LA since the first of this month. All of them are presented on gigantic billboards all over the city –– at major intersections including Sunset and Vine, Beverly and Laurel, Hollywood and Western.



SUBMISSION INFO

Please don't hesitate to email with questions.

  • We accept all disciplines - if you can put it on a digital file we can put it on a billboard.
  • We use several different billboard sizes:  10'x22' - 12'x24' - 24'x26' - 14'x48'
  • There is a $28 dollar fee for first image $9.00 for each additional image.
  • To ensure an easy and safe submission process, TBC use Call for Entries to accept images and payment.
  • After submissions close, the curator will conduct a blind-review process to select the pieces that will be included in the exhibit.
  • Deadline: 9/17/ 2023 - Midnight MST.
  • Image format for submission : JPEG or JPG- File dimensions: 1200 pixels or greater on the longest side. File size: under 5 MB
  • We accept many forms of art - if you can get it on a digital file* we can put it on a billboard. There are great examples of paintings, sculptures, mix media etc. on the gallery page. *(Sorry, we still aren't accepting video or audio works at this time.)
  • Click here for legal agreement.
  • TBC is an all-volunteer nonprofit - all submission fees are used for the production and management of exhibitions - we have no salaried staff.
  • If your work is selected, TBC covers all expenses for the production, mounting, and leasing of the billboard.
  • Not all submissions will receive a billboard.
  • Everyone is eligible - if you are under 18 you must have a parent or legal guardian submit your work.
  • The Billboard Creative will not use your images for any commercial purpose outside the terms of the TBC show and publicity for TBC and its shows. Every image you submit is yours and you retain all rights to your images.

Common Questions

Q: When do I find out if I have been selected?

We take selecting the work very seriously. The process usually takes a few months after the submission deadline. All entrants will receive an email notifications when selections have been made and this information will also be posted on the TBC website.

Q: Does the art have to be the same aspect ratio of the billboard?

No. Please be assured that your piece doesn't need to fit perfectly on a billboard when you submit your images.  There are a many ways to work around the different sizes.

Q: Will it help me if my work fits on a billboard?

No. Artwork is not chosen because of how perfectly it fits on a billboard.  We deal with two major vendors that have completely different requirements and different billboard sizes and formats.

Q: What size billboards do you lease?

We use several different billboard sizes:  10'x22' - 12'x24' - 24'x26' - 14'x48'

‍Q: What are the submission fees used for and if I don't get accepted can I get a refund?

We are an all-volunteer organization - the fees, along with donations, go to rent the billboards and help cover the cost of organizing and staging the billboard show. There are no refunds.

If you are a selected artist we will contact you about reformatting your file to fit on the specific billboard.

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We look forward to your submissions.

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DONATE
For more information please email: asantelli@thebillboardcreative.org