LOS ANGELES, February 2020 – In February, the non-profit arts organization The Billboard Creative (www.thebillboardcreative.org) opens its sixth exhibition, bringing large-format art from emerging and established artists to 34 billboards across Los Angeles.
With the goal of shining light on underexposed artists and their practices through major, public exhibitions of artwork, The Billboard Creative (TBC) turns billboard advertising spaces into accessible art exhibitions open to all Angelenos. Works are selected through a curated, blind-submission process open to all, and shown alongside selected guest artists that have included Ed Ruscha, Paul McCarthy, Marilyn Minter, and Alex Prager.
This year’s show includes works in a broad range of media - photography, painting, assemblages, mixed-media, collage, and sculpture - and includes works from guest artists Marc Dennis and Kara Maria.
“Our concept is to treat the city as an open-air gallery for both the benefit of the artists and Los Angeles,” says TBC Founder and Executive Director Adam Santelli. “LA drivers have passed our boards literally tens of millions of times since we started. That’s public art on a mass scale and an audience that is rare for an artist.”
“The Billboard Creative forefronts innovative artists and situates them in the slipstream of one the world’s most vibrant art centers,” said show curator Christopher Vroom, founder of arts nonprofit Artadia. “Promoting artistic practice has been a core passion of mine for over 20 years and to be able to work with great artists, giving them a vast canvas and a multi-million sized audience, has been amazingly gratifying.”
The Billboard Creative started in 2012 as an experiment in public art with a single billboard. In April 2015, TBC placed 14 works by contemporary artists on billboards throughout Los Angeles. Through that effort, Santelli met photographer
Mona Kuhn, who signed on as curator and artistic director with a vision to help
the young organization expand and include a greater mix of both emerging and established artists. Its subsequent exhibition in December 2015 grew to over 30 works and included pieces from Ed Ruscha, Kim McCarty, and Jack Pierson. In the course of its six shows, TBC has hung more than 160 billboards from artists around the globe and has generated more than 35 million outdoor impressions.
2020 BILLBOARD CREATIVE ARTISTS
Luciana Abait, Los Angeles: photo-based manipulation (Gower btw Santa Monica & Romaine)
Nicole Abbett, Tampa, FL: photograph (Sunset btw Glendale Blvd & Echo Park Ave.)
Michael David Adams, Maplewood, NJ: photograph (Third St. btw Columbia & Witmer)
Alia Ali, Los Angeles & Marrakech: mixed media (Santa Monica Blvd. btw Gower & Beachwood)
Marcel Ceuppens, Rye Brook, NY: assemblage (Melrose btw Seward St. & Hudson)
Mike Dempsey, Los Angeles: photograph (Hollywood Blvd. btw Vermont & Hillhurst)
Jillian Denby, Greenwich, NY: painting (Hollywood Blvd. btw Gower & Bronson)
Jonathan Di Furia, Latina, Italy: painting (Sunset Blvd. btw Rampart & Coronado)
Sharon Eldridge, Sandia Park, NM: painting (Glendale Blvd. btw Fletcher & Silverlake Blvd.)
Sara Silvia Ferrucci, Rome: collage (Cahuenga & Yucca)
Kevin Flynn, Oakland, CA: photograph (Melrose Ave. btw Cahuenga & Vine)
Xrstine Franco, Los Angeles: photograph (Sunset Blvd. btw Micheltorena & Vendome)
Jona Frank, Los Angeles: photograph (Vine Street btw Santa Monica & Romaine)
Dina Goldstein, Vancouver, BC: photograph (Highland Ave. btw Willoughby & Waring)
Cornelia Hediger, New York: assemblage (Highland Ave. btw Fountain & Lexington)
Ellen Jantzen, Santa Fe, NM: assemblage (Fairfax Ave. btw Romaine & Willoughby)
Tommy Kha: New York & Memphis: photograph (Beverly Blvd. & Gardner St.)
Michel Pierre Lachance: Montreal: digital drawing (Melrose Ave. btw Wilton Pl. & Western)
Rollence Patugan: Pasadena, CA: photograph (Highland Ave. & Fountain Ave.)
Benjamin Phillips, Ottawa, Canada: sculpture (Melrose Ave. & Larchmont Blvd.)
Reid + Factor (a collaboration from Margaret Reid Boyer & Jodie Factor), Brooklyn: photograph (Gower & Santa Monica Blvd.)
Robin Repp, Huntington Beach, CA: photograph (Third Street btw Witmer & Lucas)
Christy Lee Rogers, Franklin, TN: photograph (Sunset Blvd. & Silverlake Blvd.)
Nadine Rovner, Philadelphia: photograph (Hollywood Blvd. & Normandie)
Marina Shaltout, Tucson, AZ: photograph (Santa Monica Blvd. btw Vince & El Centro)
Marna Shopoff, Indianapolis, IN: painting (Santa Monica Blvd. & Vine St.)
Michael Spillers, Kansas City, MO: photograph (Beverly btw Western & Normandie)
Dustin Steuck, Minneapolis, MN: photo of performance art (Sunset Blvd. btw Micheltorena & Descanso)
Vakseen, Los Angeles: collage (LaBrea Ave. btw Beverly Blvd. & 2nd St.)
Thomas Wheeler, Redondo Beach, CA: photograph (Santa Monica Blvd. & El Centro)
Kathleen Whitaker, Idaho Falls, ID: painting (Santa Monica Blvd. & El Centro)
Clinton Wood, Cincinnati, OH: painting (Selma Ave. & Schrader Blvd.)