About the Artist

Alexandre Farto, known as Vhils, is a Portuguese contemporary artist recognized for transforming the process of destruction into a method of creation. Emerging from Lisbon’s graffiti scene in the early 2000s, Vhils developed a distinctive visual language based on removing, cutting and breaking through surfaces rather than simply adding imagery to them.

His signature portraits are created by carving directly into walls and working across materials including layered posters, wood, metal, concrete, ceramic tile and paper. Using tools ranging from chisels and drills to corrosive processes and controlled explosives, Vhils exposes the layers beneath a surface, revealing the physical history held within it.

At the center of his work is the relationship between people, cities, memory and change. Faces emerge from weathered and fragmented materials, connecting individual identity with the environments that surround us. Vhils describes this approach as an “archaeology of the present”—using the layers of the contemporary city to examine what is preserved, erased and ultimately remembered.

His international breakthrough came in 2008 when he participated in the Cans Festival in London, and his work has since been presented internationally through major public projects, galleries and institutions including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, CAFA Art Museum in Beijing and the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati.

Website: Vhils