Artworks from Vhils

Vhils

The Portuguese artist Alexandre Farto (Lisbon, 1987) started interacting with the urban environment as a graffiti artist in the early 2000s under the name Vhils.
Vhils explores the concept of creative destruction and attempts to make visible the invisible that lies beneath the surface of things, creating powerful and poetic visual statements from materials that the city rejects. He carves, cuts, drills, etches and shoots his way through the layers of material. Yet, like an archaeologist, he removes to expose, revealing the beauty trapped beneath.
His striking form of visual poetry, shown in various contexts around the world, has been described as bold and complex, yet imbued with a simplicity that speaks to the core of human emotions. It is an ongoing reflection on identity, on life in contemporary urban societies and their saturated environments.
It explores themes such as the struggle between the aspirations of the individual and the demands of everyday life, or the erosion of cultural uniqueness in the face of the dominant model.