Portuguese-born artist Alexandre Farto’s (aka Vhils) can’t be boxed in one medium, he creates on so many different levels. Of late he’s taken to creating works purely from in situ materials, taking vandalism as art to its logical ad absurdum conclusion. Advertising billboards are torn to make fresh images, and plaster drilled away at until the remaining relief forms the work. But this is a long way from brutalism. Vhils art is poetic, complex, and ambitious, often focusing on the needs we have abandoned in favor of our wants, and the realisation that trading pleasure for happiness will be a less than a straightforward exchange.

By re-contextualising the urban settings, Vhils explores and questions the many dimensions of cities and their inhabitants in a series of playful works. Focusing on the people that inhabit the artist’s multicultural environment he draws attention to the layers that underlie it. A set of portraits of unknown faces use unconventional techniques and materials; acid and bleach eat into surfaces to expose the layers beneath, the act of destruction becoming an act of creation, posters that exemplify a consumer society are subtly converted into objects poignantly celebrating humankind.

In his street work he discards posters, metal and paper and comes face to face with the rawness of the naked wall. He continues his celebration of the humanity underlying the urban canvas, by scratching portraits directly onto its walls.

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SO Note: (All work by artist Alexandre Farto aka Vhils, find more about the artist, and where you can find his work at his website, www.alexandrefarto.com)

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Tags: Alexandre Farto, Art, Artist, Artists, Vhils