MEET VHILS<\/span><\/h3>\nA\u00a0street and urban artist who has presented his work in more than 30 countries through solo and group exhibitions, site-specific art interventions, artistic events and projects in various contexts \u2014 from working with communities in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro to collaborations with renowned cultural institutions such as the EDP Foundation (Lisbon), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Barbican Centre (London), CAFA Art Museum (Beijing) and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (San Diego), among others. He has also directed several music videos, short films and a stage production. His groundbreaking bas-relief carving technique \u2014 which forms the basis of the Scratching the Surface project \u2014 has been hailed as one of the most compelling approaches to urban art in recent decades. His practice has since expanded across a range of media, including sculpture, installations and audiovisual projects.<\/p>\n
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Vhils grew up in Seixal, an industrialised suburb across the river from Lisbon, and was deeply influenced by the transformations brought about by the intensive urban development Portugal underwent during the 1980s and 1990s. The contrast between revolutionary murals and the emerging era of mass advertising brought conflict and inspiration to his creative vision.<\/p>\n
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Vhils became interested in graffiti at the age of 10 and started painting on the streets at 13. He painted trains in Portugal and around Europe before becoming part of the Leg Crew collective in Almada. He painted letters, and the name Vhils came from the combination of letters he most enjoyed drawing. Graffiti was the starting point of his professional career as an artist: he began with spray paint and then experimented with stencils and other processes.<\/p>\n
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At 18, Vhils participated in the organisation of Visual Street Performance (VSP), in Lisbon\u2019s Bairro Alto \u2014 a street art initiative that brought together hundreds of people across several annual editions. The following year, after an initial period at AR.CO and without the grades required for his preferred university options, he decided to apply to Central Saint Martins in London, submitting his portfolio, and was accepted.<\/p>\n
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Two years later, in 2008, he participated in The Cans Festival, organised by renowned street artist Banksy in the Waterloo tunnels in London. This was when Vhils gained international recognition. The work he exhibited there, featuring the faces of two women looking in opposite directions, made the cover of The Times, and the BBC referred to him as the \u201cPortuguese Banksy\u201d. Later, Banksy\u2019s agent, Steve Lazarides, gave him additional space to create his street art carvings. Soon afterwards, several of his works were published.<\/p>\n
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When Vhils grew tired of painting walls illegally, he began working on advertising posters and billboards. He would paint them black and then peel away the accumulated layers of paper. He later transferred this technique to walls, sculpting their surfaces in a style that became his signature.<\/p>\n
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One of his most recognisable forms of expression is the relief portrait. These portraits are carved into plaster and brick walls around the world. He also creates works by dissecting advertising posters and excavating walls. Other media include collage, wheat-paste works, wood, metal and installations. He is also known for using a range of tools and processes, including acid etching, bleach and pneumatic drills, to reveal the layers beneath a surface.<\/p>\n
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Vhils often chooses anonymous faces as his subjects, seeking to give a face to the city and empower ordinary people. Scratching the Surface is one of his best-known projects: using construction tools, he removes layers from architectural surfaces to reveal the histories embedded in the urban environment.<\/p>\n
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Applying his original methods of creative destruction, Vhils digs into the surface layers of our material culture like a contemporary urban archaeologist, exposing what lies beyond the superficiality of things, making the invisible visible and restoring meaning and beauty to discarded dimensions buried beneath. By scratching the surface, Vhils reveals the inner layers of a city. Beneath the surface, the layers of stone that make up walls become a reference to the layers that shape people, cities and societies. He humanises cities by giving them a face and bringing us face to face with them. Destruction becomes a form of construction.<\/p>\n
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Vhils\u2019s works can be found in countries and territories including Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Italy, the United States, Ukraine, Macau and Brazil. He has been involved in projects as diverse as video productions, brand partnerships, social initiatives involving Indigenous communities in Brazil and communities in favelas, as well as the curation of festivals. Part of his success lies in his willingness to push beyond the limits of the wall. Whether collaborating with U2 on the Films of Innocence video project or contributing to Lisbon\u2019s cultural scene through Underdogs, the cultural platform he helped establish in 2010, he continues to demonstrate the place of street art within contemporary art.<\/p>\n
[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”55px”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”element_from_fade” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” background_color=”#0a0a0a” anchor=”home” z_index=””][vc_column width=”1\/4″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/4″][vc_empty_space height=”120px”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n
\u2018Anything that is an act of creation should be considered as an art. Not less or more than anything else. If you feel it in your guts, trust it\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”20px”][vc_column_text el_class=”name-depo”]<\/p>\n
VHILS<\/span><\/h5>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”140px”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/4″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row css_animation=”element_from_fade” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” background_color=”#ffffff” z_index=”” css=”.vc_custom_1564055759069{margin-top: 80px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_empty_space height=”100px”][vc_single_image image=”16745″ img_size=”full” qode_css_animation=””][vc_empty_space height=”5px”][vc_column_text] Episode [\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”5px”][vc_video link=”https:\/\/youtu.be\/Sd4vR5HI_x8″ align=”center”][vc_empty_space height=”40px”][vc_column_text] Official links [\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”5px”][vc_column_text] More about Vhils Facebook Instagram[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”40px”][vc_column_text] Hashtags [\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”5px”][vc_column_text] #vhils #alexandrefarto #artist #urban artist #art #streetart…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"full_width.php","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leadersinactionsociety.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16744"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leadersinactionsociety.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leadersinactionsociety.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leadersinactionsociety.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leadersinactionsociety.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16744"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.leadersinactionsociety.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16827,"href":"https:\/\/www.leadersinactionsociety.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16744\/revisions\/16827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leadersinactionsociety.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}