Artist Mars Wright has a message for LA’s Trans community
This month, a powerful new message of Trans joy is dazzling one of LA’s most iconic stretches: Sunset Boulevard. Created by LA-based artist and designer Mars Wright, the billboard features his signature Martian characters and bold colors, inviting viewers to see themselves reflected in joy. Located at Sunset & Westerly, the billboard is a declaration: “In LA, we protect Trans folks loudly.”
To celebrate the piece, Mars Wright is inviting the public to join him on-site on Thursday, September 11 from 6:30-7:15 PM for a community moment of connection and celebration (event details here). On his social media channels, he invited fans, friends, and strangers alike to come together to take a photo together, snap selfies, share stories, and meet Mars in front of his historic piece of Trans art.
“To the Trans folks who are moving to LA for a better life, the ones who left their families behind to pursue safety, the ones who have called this place home, and the ones who dream of calling it home — this message is for you,” Wright said.
Mars Wright, originally from Joshua Tree, California, is a self-taught mixed-media artist whose work centers on the accessibility of art for all, authenticity, self-love, and the power of radical vulnerability. Through fashion, murals, and guerrilla-style public interventions, Mars uses art to create spaces of connection, safety, and community.
“Art isn’t just for the rich or meant to be in uptight galleries,” he says. “Art is for everyone.”
Growing up in poverty without access to art supplies or formal training, Mars developed his practice using what was available. His early illustrations were made on Priority Mail stickers because they were free. That ethos — that anyone can make art that changes the world — continues to guide his work. Learn more about his origin story in this mini doc.
Mars has been featured on the cover of the LA Times, and in Business Insider, BuzzFeed, Out Magazine (Out100), The Advocate, and Apartment Therapy, among others. His signature murals and clothing have become staples of Queer public art in LA, radiating visibility, hope, and defiance.
“I’m deeply inspired by Keith Haring, and I see billboards as LA’s subway art,” Mars says. “With this message on one of the busiest streets in the city, I hope people walking past can lovingly see that in LA, Trans folks are protected — and celebrated — loudly.”
The billboard Mars reimagined had long featured the message “I like you very much,” maintained by Jordan Bromley as a positive gesture to the city. When Mars saw a post about it, he reached out to expand on its legacy — shaping a message directly for the Trans and Queer community.
With full creative freedom granted by The Center for Provocative Thought, the nonprofit that funded the installation, Mars covered the billboard with his signature Martians — colorful characters meant to be chosen, identified with, and loved. Each figure, like each viewer, is unique and worthy.
Mars envisions this as the beginning of a larger project.
“We’d love to expand this — imagine driving past multiple billboards across LA, creating stories as you go,” he said.
In addition to murals and billboards, Mars’ fashion line is its own form of public art — messages worn, seen, and shared across the city. His newest collection, MASCULINITY ON MARS, is his first couture line, a reimagining of manhood through the eyes of Trans men.
“This is not just a collection of designs, but a manifestation of a new world,” says Mars. “A world free of broken binaries and internalized shame—and instead full of joy, vulnerability, and strength from the viewpoint of the men who will work to create that world: TRANS MEN!”
ABOUT MARS WRIGHT
Mars Wright, originally from Joshua Tree CA, is an LA-Based mixed media artist. His work centers on Trans Joy and the power of radical vulnerability. Through sharing himself and his art he hopes to help others feel less alone.
His work primarily focuses on textile design, fashion design, murals, and guerilla art as activism.
THE CENTER FOR PROVOCATIVE THOUGHT
The Center for Provocative Thought is dedicated to providing nurturing environments where interdisciplinary and dynamic thinkers converge, commune, and collaboratively cultivate positive global change. Serving as an incubation hub for artists across Los Angeles and the region, the Center offers space, residencies, and support for creative work rooted in care, experimentation, and collective possibility.
