Its almost impossible to fathom the amount of work that is. Cutting through page after page of each book that most of us throw away or recycle, these masterpieces infuse beauty and innovation into an object we see as teetering on obsolete. Philadelphiabased artist alex queral has found a brilliant way to use all of the old, discarded phone books he found lying around. Alex queral transforms the ordinary phone book into a creative piece of art, carving into its pages funny caricatures of famous people. Alex queral carves faces into books of faceless names, producing threedimensional portraits that reach deep within discarded phone books. Over a decade ago, queral was out one day searching for wood to use in a sculpture he was making. If you happen to have a few spare copies of the white pages lying around, you might want to send it onto alex queral, who carves intricate three dimensiona. His drawing is then placed over the phone book as a template and he uses an artist s scalpel or basic razor blades to. Jun 10, 2010 incredible phone book carvings of celebrity faces rather than just leaving phone books to rot in the gutter alex queral decided to recycle them by turning them into works of art. Cubanamerican artist alex queral carves phone books to shape three dimensional portraits of popculture icons. Art made out of books puts new spin on concept of book art.
Aug 09, 2009 alex queral does these wonderful heads, carved out of phone books then painted with acrylics. Alex queral s carved phone book art alex queral does these wonderful heads, carved out of phone books then painted with acrylics. Take a look at these great images of celebrities and unknowns alike in phone book. Jan 27, 2010 philadelphiabased artist alex queral carves the faces of celebrities into phone books, then coats the results with acrylic.
Alex queral book carvings 1 jan 2016 cubanamerican artist alex. In carving and painting a head from a phone directory, im celebrating the individual lost in the anonymous list of thousands of names that describe the size of the community. Cuban american artist alex queral carves phonebooks to create these amazing portraits. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. Peeling away the pages like the skin of an onion to reveal the portrait. Alex queral uses discarded phone books to create incredible portraits of celebrities like clint eastwood or john lennon.
Alex queral has had several gallery and museum exhibitions, including at the projects gallery. Through his 3d phonebook carvings, the artist aims to celebrate the individual who is lost in the anonymous list of the thousands of names printed in the directory. Alex queral occasionally, you come across an artist whose skill and dexterity in the practice of their art can leave you breathless with admiration. Alex queral s phone book art philadelphiabased artist alex queral has found a brilliant way to use all of the old, discarded phone books he found lying around. Alex queral lets his fingers do the carving baltimore. Most are famous faces like peewee herman and bob dylan. I was out looking for wood to make a sculpture one. Awesome phone book carvings by alex queral beauty will save. Find the latest shows, biography, and artworks for sale by alex queral. It all started many years back when he was looking for wood to make a sculpture and he noticed a huge pile of phone books on. Its a perfect example how unusual use of materials can lead to worldwide fame. Alex queral carves famous faces into phone books wow art. Take a look at these great images of celebrities and unknowns alike in phone book form. Artist creates famous faces from phone books telegraph.
The work of philadelphiabased artist alex queral repurposes old phone books for carving. Phone book heads is the first solo show at projects gallery for artist alex queral. With the book, a very sharp xacto knife, a little pot of acrylic medium to set detail areas and a great deal of talent, queral literally peels away the pages like the skin of an onion to reveal the portrait within. A collection of inspired works by artists other than myself call it free and unauthorized promotion. Alex queral is a 51 year old artist who respects the rejected telephone books. Alex queral phone book portraits worlds national museums. Alex queral was just an undergraduate at the university of washington in seattle who loved to paint. Mar 01, 2011 with the use of something as simple as a phonebook, alex queral carves faces into them giving an astounding realism and making each face pop off the page and come to life. I carve the faces out of phone books because i like the threedimensional quality that results and because of the unexpected results that occur working in this medium. Jul 14, 2009 philadelphia artist alex queral uses a unique yet ordinary medium to create his art a phone book.
Read the artist bio and gain a deeper understanding with mutualarts artist profile. Sep 10, 2010 artist alex queral found a great way to recycle old phone books. Fourteen years ago, alex queral was out looking for wood for a new sculpture, when he suddenly noticed all of the outofdate phone books being thrown out. With the use of something as simple as a phonebook, alex queral carves faces into them giving an astounding realism and making each face pop off the page and come to life. In carving and painting a head from a phonebook directory, im. Magazine alex queral carves faces into phonebooks book. Its almost impossible to fathom the amount of work that is placed into carving something so detailed. Back in 1995, alex queral was just an undergraduate at the university of washington in seattle who loved to paint. He uses their pages to sculpt stay safe and healthy. Portraits carved from phone books by artist alex queral. This is just about the only good use of a phone book i can think of. Taking an ordinary phone book, alex queral carves a face into this object of so many faceless names. Born in havana, in 1958, alex querals family migrated to mexico. Queral brings celebrities to life through phone book pages.
Join facebook to connect with alex queral and others you may know. So, maybe we should all send our phone books to alex queral, an artist who creates faces from carved phone book pages. Alex queral is a philadelphiabased artist who has found an incredible way to use old, discarded phone books he carves their pages into celebrities faces. Using the very same bulky, cumbersome books that most of us toss into the recycling bin without a second thought, artist alex queral carves amazing 3. Faces in the phone book by alex queral drawing inspiration. Baltimore sculptorpainter and erstwhile rumba club musician alex queral takes an ordinary phone book and, using a sharp xacto knife and a pot of acrylic medium for detailing, carves something extraordinary out of it portraits of famous faces. Alex queral takes your old phonebooks and makes art. Queral started using phonebooks when off looking for some wood and happened upon some more. Cuban american artist alex querals sculptural heads, carved from. Rather than using wood, his medium of choice is old phone books which he carves into portraits of famous people. Philadelphiabased artist alex queral carves the faces of celebrities into phone books, then coats the results with acrylic. The emerging cubanborn artist alex queral has perfected the art of sculpting the likenesses of the dalai lama, ringo starr and endless other. I carve the faces out of phone books because i like the threedimensional quality that results and because of the unexpected results that. Sculptor alex queral carves up phonebooks to create portraits.
Alex querals superman retired the medium emphasizes the reuse of abandoned materials as well as the extraordinary human individuality emerging from the vast numbers of names listed in the phone book. The phone book sculptures of alex queral neatorama. Portraits from telephone directories curious, funny. Cubinian artist from philadelphia alex queral uses old and unwanted phone books for carvings. Jul 16, 2009 alex querals phone book art is on display at philadelphia international airport, in terminal f, concourse 2. Apr 07, 2009 the emerging cubanborn artist alex queral has perfected the art of sculpting the likenesses of the dalai lama, ringo starr and endless other familiar faces into a common, but unexpected medium. With an incredibly accurate technique, alex sculpts famous faces in the book with the only help of a sharp knife, a jar of acrylic to fix the details and his incredible talent. Artist uses phonebooks to create portraits crafting a. Using a very sharp xacto knife also see the carvings of salavat fidai who works with the same knife, the artist creates an identity of so many faceless names that describe the size of an entire community. Cubanborn artist alex queral creates these amazing artworks by taking to old telephone directories with a razor knife and some acrylic. Carved phonebook sculptures by alex queral strictlypaper. The creative alliance is currently hosting an exhibit of his mixed media work entitled face book in. Alex queral does these wonderful heads, carved out of phone books then painted with acrylics. Cuban artist, alex queral, 3d phone book sculpture exhibition.
This phone book art by alex queral is a great way to utilize those phone books no one uses anymore. Artist carves phone books into portraits to honor the. Alex queral is a cubanamerican artist who has carved himself out a very unique place among his peers. Philadelphia artist alex queral uses a unique yet ordinary medium to create his art a phone book. In carving and painting a head from a phone book directory, im. Please practice handwashing and social distancing, and. Rather than just leaving them to rot he would recycle them, using them as the basis for works of art by carving portraits out of them. Alex queral cubausa multi media artist who caught the eye for his mastery in sculpture paintings carved out of phone books, which create realistic portraits of famous faces. Via the uk telegraph, i recently learned about alex queral, an artist currently living in philadelphia, pa who creates portraits of celebrities and politicians, but what is interesting about him is that he carves these portraits out of discarded phone books. Each face is often painted with a monochromatic wash to distinguish the portrait from the pages. Based in philadelphia, he developed the idea of using telephone books in his artworks 14 years ago when he was looking for wood to sculpt and came upon a pile of discarded phone books. For me, the human head was a natural choice of subject matter because of its inherent expressiveness. His choice of medium is quite unique, yet ordinary which results in threedimensional quality that enhances the portraits as an object as opposed to a picture. Its a perfect example how unusual use of materials can lead to worldwide fame and success.
Aug 17, 2009 artist creates famous faces from phone books. When alex queral saw a pile of unwanted phone books 14 years ago, he was hit with a flash of inspiration. These amazingly detailed celebrity faces may look like sketches but they are in fact carved out of unwanted phone books. To find out more about alex queral and see lots more of these phone book portraits, see his profile page at project gallery. All images on this website are the sole property of the original artist. He came upon a bunch of old discarded phone books and thats when. Alex querals choice of material is not so much the result of deep. Sculptor alex queral carves up phonebooks signal v. Amazing phone book carvings by alex queral bored panda. Using the drawing as a template, he slices away at the thousands of pages with an artist s scapel or razor blade.
Philadelphia artist alex queral has got a creative use of the old phone books. Amazing phone book carvings by alex queral bored factory. Nov 23, 2010 portraits carved from phone books by artist alex queral. Home inspiration faces in the phone book by alex queral. Featuring his sculptural faces carved from phonebooks, his art elicits amazed reactions wherever it is shown.
Recycling phone books to make stunning sculptures is the way in which environmentally friendly artist alex queral likes to make his contribution to green art. Website of the telegraph media group with breaking news, sport, business, latest uk and world news. Mar 3, 2012 philadelphiabased artist alex queral has found a brilliant way to use all of the old, discarded phone books he found lying around. Cubanborn artist alex queral carves the faces of celebrities into old telephone books. They are heavy, take up a lot of space, and you get a new one every year, even though you can meanwhile find almost all the information in there online anyway. What he enjoyed the most was creating self portraits using a heavy impasto technique, which required a lot of paint and sometimes even wax to make the faces a bit more sculptural.
I carve the faces out of phone books because i like the threedimensional quality that results and because of the unexpected results that occur working in this. Alex queral s phone book art is on display at philadelphia international airport, in terminal f, concourse 2. Aug 24, 2009 philadelphia, pa an american artist has spent the last 14 years carving celebrity faces out of phone books. The emerging cubanborn artist alex queral has perfected the art of sculpting the likenesses of the dalai lama, ringo starr and endless other familiar faces into a common, but unexpected medium. Jul 11, 2014 alex queral is a cubanamerican artist who has carved himself out a very unique place among his peers. Philadelphia, pa an american artist has spent the last 14 years carving celebrity faces out of phone books.
Taking an ordinary phone book, alex queral carves a face into this object of so many. Incredible phone book carvings of celebrity faces recyclenation. Artist alex queral carves amazingly detailed famous faces from phone books. With the book, a very sharp xacto knife, a little pot of acrylic mediu. Jul 19, 2010 alex queral is a 51 year old artist who respects the rejected telephone books. There have been many articles about alex queral, including phone book sculptures of pop culture icons written by caroline stanley for flavorwire in 2010. Alex queral took discarded phone books and carved out 3d heads of famous people through thousands of pages with razor blades or an artist s scalpel. Apr 06, 2017 it may be wrong to judge a book by its cover, but many artists believe that books actually are more than mere reading material. Alex queral is an artist that isnt afraid to put a face to all of those names found in a phone book. Alex queral was born in havana, cuba, but currently is philadelphiabased artist. In this comprehensive collection of art made from books, we explore the myriad of ways that bibliophilic artists inventively transform works of literature into works of art. Since people mostly use the internet, to look for things these days, most phone books just get dumped somewhere, so he sees his art as a way of recycling them.
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