Faces Ink is pleased to present a solo exhibition by New York street artist Quel Beast at Gallery Bar on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Please join us for an Artist’s Reception on Friday July 27th from 7-10pm.

Quel Beast learned how to paint by pasting both his failures and successes in the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn. He often serves as his own subject, using twisted and wrinkled faces to render portraits that are shifting proportions of joy, frustration, self-obsession and demoralization.

The influence of New York’s rich street art and graffiti legacy shows up in the bright colors and bold lines Quel Beast uses to bring his faces to life. A central theme of these portraits has been the emotional turmoil of struggling New Yorkers, but recently Quel Beast has been exploring ways to render the faces we wear when we’re struggling with more than the daily grind. Almost a year ago Quel Beast began confronting his internal demon of addiction. The insanity of self-deification and self-destruction, inherent in a life run by self-will, is most evident in his recent selfish portraits.