Overview
Itsy Bitsy Bollocks is a site-responsive, collaborative exhibition featuring drawing, painting, sculpture and mixed media installation by Mr. Eggs (Manchester, England), Mark Jenkins (Washington, DC), Travis Millard (Los Angeles, CA) and Kelly Towles (Washington, DC). Influenced by skate and punk culture, graffiti, comic book art, and pop art, each artist's work has a distinct visual style that comments on urban life, current political and pop culture news and issues, as well as personal anecdotes that convey the laughable and mockable in humanity and society.
The artists in Itsy Bitsy Bollocks choose to present their work in a multitude of urban settings to allow for immediate and unrestricted viewer response. Presenting similar bodies of work within the context of Transformer's store-front project space, Itsy Bitsy Bollocks encourages dialogue around what constitutes fine art - the work itself or the context in which it is presented?
Evolving from the one night Bollocks event organized by Kelly Towles in 2005 at Adamson Gallery (the commercial gallery who represents Towles) - an artistic intervention and convention of sorts that featured the raffling of free works by over 100 'street' artists - Itsy Bitsy Bollocks furthers the relationship of four emerging artists and their work through a curated exploration of their playful yet defiant street art aesthetics. With their art work presented both outside and inside the gallery space, the artists in Itsy Bitsy Bullocks bridge their rebellious street art-making processes and keenly tuned contemporary and graphic art sensibilities creating a unique exhibition at Transformer that highlights the irreverent humor each of these artists brings to their work.
Mr. Eggs "tries to stay anonymous and stay away from the glitz and glam that some of today's street artists have come accustomed to. Very little is known of this artist apart from what is told around the streets and local bars. Mr. Eggs work consists of humorous and odd statements that sometimes leave the viewer bewildered and confused to the point where they just start to smile and giggle ever so slightly to themselves, this sometimes leads the general public into a frenzy of 'I must try and take this piece of art home with me; I love it,' and then try to peel, unscrew or even pick up the artwork that has been left for the whole of the general public to enjoy.
Most of the artist's nights are filled with climbing walls with his ninja chicken like skills and scaling crazy insane heights to place his work for the world to see. One such case was that of the recent Banksy "Cruder Oils" show in London, UK where Mr. Eggs single handedly infiltrated Banksy's gallery, evading the security and the masses of Banksy fans outside waiting to enter the venue, to stick-up his own painting which then stayed up for the entire duration of the show. The 'Eggie Magritte' that it has now been labeled, has pride and place in the POW headquarters in London waiting for pick up. The very illusive Eggs has also managed to adjust and recreate some of Banksy's work into his own, thus making a new kind of evolution in the street art scene. In a quote by the artist over heard in the Black Cat bar, 'I just want to paint the town yellow and make folk smile and if I have to break a few eggs along the way, well I guess that's what's got to happen. It beats doing a 9 to 5 job and gets my work more appreciated by the people'." www.mreggs.com
Mark Jenkins figurative tape sculptures and tape casts of urban objects have been seen on street corners, in parks, and other public settings. Using clear packing tape as his primary material, Mark creates playful figures and scenarios in unexpected locations pushing ironic sensibilities. About his chosen materials Mark states, "with packing tape I can walk up to a parking meter, fire hydrant or mailbox and rip a cast of it in a matter of minutes. I can't think of another casting medium that would allow me to do this. I also like clear tape sculpture for street installations because it's highly reflective and translucent. It stands out in cityscapes in a way that's otherworldly." In creating an artist statement about his work, Mark writes: "when the Good Humor truck comes, the kids laugh and scream; they don't even know why. I guess it's because they're going to eat ice cream and too, the truck plays its tune loud escalating the mood like a Pavlov effect. I'd like my art to be this captivating to kids, and make adults the same. You can't eat tape but you can eat art. 2006 is Year of the Stork." www.storker.net/tapesculpture.html
Travis Millard is an accomplished artist whose work has been presented along with artists Shepard Fairy and Jeremey Fish among many others. Travis is also the proprietor of Fudge Factory Comics, headquartered in Los Angeles, CA. "Fudge Factory Comics specializes in common archaic scribbles, doodle awing, zine making, funny stories, product design, animation, installation, and local sunflower seed distance spitting champion. Travis Fudge makes no acts of aggression against his neighbors and makes no attempts to harness nuclear power for anything other than peaceful means." www.fudgefactorycomics.com
Kelly Towles graduated from the University of Maryland with a fine arts degree. About his work Kelly states, "social isolation and emotional captivity are two of the major things that I comment on with my work; people dealing with the society we live in, and the emotional arsenal that each person is equipped with. Dark humor and twisted features cast most of the characters that I create." www.kellytowles.com
