05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
Billboard installation by New York artist unveiled at SWG3
Lloyd Foster's artwork is the latest addition to The Billboard Project series at SWG3.
The installation showcases a three-photo collage captured in Foster's New York studio, featuring the artist in a custom-designed garment with wing-like structures.
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This visual motif has been designed as a nod to the angelic and winged figures that often appear in Foster's sculptural works.
Foster's creations combine personal travel photographs with painterly elements, turning fleeting moments into lasting, memory-charged forms.
The imagery in his work is drawn from a variety of memories, including children from Ghana, travels across Africa, cultural symbols, urban life, and personal narratives rooted in his experience growing up in the United States.
Born in 1990 to Ghanaian immigrants and raised in Maryland, Foster's work is heavily influenced by his exploration of identity and heritage.
A trip to Ghana at the age of 24 sparked a decade-long journey of connection, leading him to document daily life across Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania.
His art strives to jump between physical and spiritual worlds, utilising recurring motifs such as angels and flames to symbolize energy and memory.
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The Billboard Project was started in 2015 by Glasgow-based artist Jim Lambie, who installed the first work on the side of a disused warehouse beside the SWG3 campus.
Placed directly in the eyeline of passing trains, it offered an "open frame" for poetic expression in a public setting.
Since then, the project has evolved into an ongoing series co-curated by Lambie and SWG3.
It aims to showcase large-scale works that are designed to blur the line between language, image, and gesture.
Featured artists have included Sue Tompkins, Scott King and Matthew Higgs, David Keenan, and Yoko Ono.
The unveiling of Foster's billboard coincides with the seventh edition of the Yardworks Festival.
The festival will take place this weekend on May 3 and 4.
This celebration has grown to become one of Europe's largest festivals of street art and creativity.
Throughout the weekend, the venue will transform into a hub of murals, live painting, and artwork.
There will also be a dedicated programme of free workshops and talks celebrating Glasgow 850 - an exploration of the city's history of graffiti, street art, and hip-hop culture.
This year will also mark the festival's new indoor exhibition featuring some of the finest street artists and illustrators working today, including members of the Yardworks Artist Mentoring Programme.
