Hollywood has been in freefall. Theatrical revenue diminished. Studio mergers reduced creative opportunities. The strikes put the industry in reverse while studios shed thousands and thousands of jobs. COVID halted productions, while streaming took the main stage. AI impacted every creative role. All the while, the posters, banners, and vinyl monuments to the movies that were created remained visible for only short periods of time. When the next title emerged, the physical artifacts of the previous releases were covered over, replaced, and quite often headed for their new life at the local landfill. Spray LA has opted to change that.

Graffiti writers and street artists work directly on these industry-disposable pieces. Multiple artists fight for space on the same surface. A movie star’s face becomes a canvas. The industry’s promotional machine becomes the street artist’s substrate.

Every piece is documented from first mark to final layer. The original poster artists, the designers and photographers whose names never made the credits, are acknowledged alongside the writers. Neither is subordinate. The tension between them is the work.

This is not anti-Hollywood. It is a document of a moment, made by people who love the industry, who came from it, and who are watching it change in real time.

Coby Gewertz

SPRAY LA is produced and curated by Coby Gewertz, an award-winning creative director who spent 30 years designing movie posters and ad campaigns for Hollywood’s biggest studios. He made the kind of art these posters carry, and he collects the kind that now covers them. Both sides of this collision are his people.