"My work is a study of everything and its relation to the human experience."
Expressionistic portrait artist, activist and humanitarian born and raised in a Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn, NY. As a student that later taught at NYC’s School of Visual Arts, she honed a deeper understanding of art and its place in not only history, but the human psyche across emotional spectrums. Her work focuses on depicting the soul behind the eyes of people who she feels enlighten her. She draws inspiration from the cacophony of light and color of the environment around her. Lucas has a unique ability to capture the emotions that make up the human experience with each brush stroke.
As a humanitarian and activist, she is an advocate for women, queer rights, self-expression, and creative empowerment. Keli is an artist who expresses her activism through her work with the goal of proving to the world that the creative mind, using art and creativity as tools, will help evolve society. Lucas believes that through shocking visuals depicted with an essence of beauty, provoke complex thought.
Being a queer female Jewish philosopher in study, Lucas hopes to have her unique perspectives and questions added to future religious texts such as the Rambam. Looking to shatter religious conventions, similar to her own, that have been holding women back as second class citizens. Keli believes that, “Everyone deserves a connection to the source and should be uplifted and appreciated for being exactly who they are”. Her journey has been a search for equality, acceptance and love for all the beings that the universal consciousness has created.
Beyond being featured in art shows across NYC, Miami and LA , she has been in creative publications such as WHITEHOT Magazine, Quiet Lunch Magazine, CREATIV Magazine, Le’tage Magazine, Nasty Magazine, Posture Magazine and more.
"It's our job to figure out how to live out our soul's fullest potential, helping the world by doing things that only you can do."
Growing up as a Jew, Keli's favorite custom has always been to live life serving others. 'Do Chesed and life will take care of itself' - Chesed is a Hebrew word that means kindness or love between people.
She has partnered up with humanitarian 501(c)3 nonprofit organization Sustainable United Neighborhoods (SUN) in Bushwick, Brooklyn to help develop their food access program. Together they are able to feed hundreds of thousands of people with prepared meals and deliver hundreds of tons of produce donated from regional farmers and grocers. Tens of thousands of households are served in NYC including undocumented and underserved families.
In 2019, Keli and SUN partnered on a humanitarian mission to Vieques, Puerto Rico, to bring needed supplies and sustainable solutions to the families that lost their homes due to hurricanes. They also provided doctors for medical assistance to cancer patients that were affected by the toxic contamination in their water due to U.S. military bomb testing until 2003.
Lucas also continues to work with SUN, developing their arts and culture division and offering free art education and mentoring to young creative professionals in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn.
"Collaboration has always been an exciting way to express a message creatively in ways that challenge us, while teaching new ways to expand our abilities."
Collaborating with fellow artists has the potential to create profound new works that are greater than the sum of their parts. Lucas regularly creates with many prolific artists in the downtown NYC art scene such as Clockwork Crosby, Outer Source, NotYourMuse and SmurfoUDirty to name a few. These collaboration pieces have been shown at galleries and have been part of many brand activations.
Lucas’ mural artwork meshes her unique style into architectural elements of a space. Partnering with hotels, venues or real estate developers, Lucas helps brands create spaces that truly inspire, while expressing the true value of art and culture.
Her brand collaborations include: The Bushwick Film Festival, The Motion Awards, The Frida Kahlo Corporation at Miami Art Basel with the Mexican Government, Welch's, Pabst Blue Ribbon, The Notorious, The SAFE Foundation, Magen David of Manhattan, Our Voice organization, The Sure We Can environmental organization, Green County Council on the Arts, Reach For The Stars Learning Center for Children with Autism, and The Rotary: a nonprofit organization dedicated to curing Polio, just to name a few.
