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t r a n s f o r m e r 1404 P Street NW Washington DC 20005 (202) 483-1102 / www.transformergallery.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Victoria Reis August 30, 2007 202-483-1102 Transformer is pleased to present: The Grate Project – A new series of large-scale public paintings by Kelly Towles Funded by the Creative Community Initiative of the Community Foundation, The Grate Project -created by DC based artist Kelly Towles and presented by Transformer this September 2007 - features a new series of public mural paintings at three different business locations within and near the 14 th Street Arts Corridor. Seeking to create large scale paintings that will exist in the public realm, Kelly Towles is creating murals that will completely cover the roll-down security grates at One World Fitness, outside the artist studios at 926 N Street in Blagden Alley, and at the Black Cat nightclub. Re-vitalizing these grates into dynamic contemporary artworks, The Grate Project is intended to further dialogue about the nature of street art and public art work, while enhancing DC’s street-scapes. A self-described military brat, Towles “got started as a kid with drawing, comic books, cartoons, and stuff like that…” He became a graffiti artist in high-school, eventually earning a degree in Studio Art from the University of Maryland before pursuing a career as an artist. Already an accomplished artist currently represented by Adamson Gallery, Towles continues to work in grafitti because he enjoys the direct engagement with the community afforded by this renegade form of public art. “I like that anybody can sit there and tell you what they think of your graffiti….For me, grafitti is art and also a vocabulary.” Having worked with Victoria Reis, Executive Director of Transformer, for several years - starting with his selection in the 10 Year Anniversary Adamson Print Project in tandem with the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanties where for which Reis was a juror in 2004 during her tenure as a public art consultant for the Commission - Towles approached Transformer to be his organizational partner in pursuing the Creative Community Initiative grant for The Grate Project. Transformer received a $20,000 grant to partner with Towles. All but 15% of the grant will support Towles in his creation, documentation, and promotion of The Grate Project. The time line for The Grate Project mural creations is as follows: September 15 -16: One World Fitness ; September 22-23: Blagden Alley ; September 29-30: The Black Cat A reception celebrating the accomplishment of these murals is currently being scheduled to take place at the Black Cat in October 2007. For further information about this event, and/or The Grate Project overalI, please contact Victoria Reis at: [email protected] or 202-483-1102. For further information about Kelly Towles and to see examples of his artwork please visit his website at: www.kellytowles.com . The Grate Project has been made possible through the support of the Creative Communities Fund - The Community Foundation of the National Capital Region, Transformer, One World Fitness, The Black Cat, and Furioso Development Corporation. Special thanks to Giorgio Furioso, Dante Ferrando, and Karim Steward for making The Grate Project possible. TRANSFORMER is a Washington, D.C. based 501(c) 3 non-profit, artist-centered visual arts organization that connects and promotes emerging artists locally, nationally and internationally. Partnering with artists, curators, art spaces and other cultural entities, Transformer serves as a catalyst and advocate for emergent expression in the visual arts. # # # Image: Raven, located at 11 Spring Street, NYC. Part of the Wooster Collective’s Spring Street Project, November 2006
