Farewell

February 4, 2023

Dearest looker-uppers,

We’re writing to bid you a fond farewell. For three years, there’s been nothing but beautiful Bay Area art on the billboard above 624 Irving Street and we’ve had such an incredible time working with the artists who made this possible:

Lindsey White, Katie Dorame, Oree Originol, David Bayus, Maria Guzmán Capron, Yétundé Olagbaju, Kate Rhoades, Emma Spertus, Saif Azzuz, Em Meine, Isaac Vazquez Avila, Lisa Rybovich Crallé, Joey Enos, Pieper, Margaret Tedesco, Cybele Lyle and Daniel J. Glendening

Thank you all! When we started Premiere Jr. we had no idea we’d be operating for the duration of a global pandemic. For us, it has been so important to create a space for this community to gather and make new work at a time when it was hard to access art and art spaces.

We loved seeing how artists responded to this weird assignment, stretching beyond their studio practices and familiar mediums to interesting and delightful results.

Thank you to Southern Exposure for the Alternative Exposure grant. Thank you to Arizmendi for all the sidewalk pizza. And thank you to everyone who stopped by a reception or paused in their daily lives to look up. We hope we provided a welcome interruption in the landscape to ponder something a little mysterious, a little fun and always beautiful.

We encourage others to do this kind of work. This format is for everyone! Recreate it!

If you have any interest in doing a project like this or putting art on a billboard in general, get in touch with us — we’ve learned a lot from our time working with Clear Channel and we would love to see more stuff like this in the world.

Much love to you all,
Zoë Taleporos & Sarah Hotchkiss
Premiere Jr.