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Remember the 99 Cents Only Art Show? Artists Allege They Got Ripped Off.

A number of local artists involved in a heavily attended, viral art show in a former 99 Cents Only Store tell L.A. TACO they’re still yet to be paid for the work that was sold.

3:43 PM PDT on July 29, 2026

a 99 cent store t-shirt

Photo by Odessa Hairapetian for L.A. TACO.

Isaura, a recent college graduate whose younger self would dress as an artist for career day and who today aspires to teach printmaking at a community college, believed that showing her work at the week-long show, alongside bigger names, was a dream come true. Over 150 days since the short-lived exhibit concluded, she sits disappointed, betrayed, and $1,248 short of sold artwork.  

Isaura with her piece 'Under the Same Sky' (2025), a cyanotype screen-printed accordion book. Photo by Odessa Hairapetian for L.A. TACO.

Deeply researched and vulnerable pieces got lost in this temporary Los Angeles exhibit that featured over 100 artists. Whether sold to a collector, stolen, or abandoned, various artists who featured work in the show are left with questions about where it now resides, along with unanswered emails from the show’s curators while they’re still yet to see a cent from their sold pieces, they say.