Alex Queral
"Phone Book Heads"
May 6 - 28, 2005 Projects Gallery

Alex Queral started his artistic career as a professional jazz guitarist.  After more than a decade of following the wishes of his family, this Cuban-American decided to follow his heart.  Graduating magna cum laude with a B.F.A. from the University of Washington, Seattle, Alex then went on to earn his M.F.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.  Although he has shown primarily in the Philadelphia area, his works have also been exhibited in New York City and Mexico City. This Cuban-born artist uses recycled, unwanted material - the phone book, home of tens of thousands of names.  Into this discarded catalog, using a razor knife and acrylic, the artist carves a single portrait as if the names of all of the catalog members join together to form a single person.

Alex has been developing his "phone book heads" for several years and believes that "carving and painting a head from a phone directory celebrates the individual lost in the anonymous list of thousands of names that describes the size of the community". He also likes "the idea of creating something that is normally discarded every year into an object of longevity".  Whether whimsical, serious or even haunting, these 3-dimensional heads have a quality that enhances the feeling of the piece as an object as opposed to simply a picture.