About the artwork
This work by Vhils continues his original practice of scratching surfaces to reveal faces. The medium used here - a wooden door, a format commonly used by the artist - enables him to transpose his urban practice onto a medium that can be easily transported and exhibited, while retaining a strong connection to the streets and facades on which he began his frescoes. Here, the door seems to enclose a male face, caught behind wooden panels resembling the bars of a jail. Playing with the colors of the different layers of this formerly varnished wood, Vhils chose not to use paint in order to better exploit his medium.
Expert opinion
This work is a perfect illustration of Vhils' technique, reinventing the practice of bas-relief sculpture. It is considered one of the most convincing approaches to urban art of the last decade.
About the artist
Alexandre Farto, alias Vhils, Portuguese artist born in 1987. Lives and works in Lisbon (Portugal). He became active in Lisbon's graffiti scene in the early 2000s. In 2008, Banksy invited him to take part in London's Cans Festival, where his work was immediately recognized and celebrated as one of the most innovative on the urban scene in recent years. Today, he exhibits at major institutions around the world, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the CAFA Art Museum in Beijing, and the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center, which is devoting its first monographic exhibition to him in the United States in 2020. Until September 2022, the MAAT (Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology) in Lisbon is dedicating a monumental, immersive exhibition to him, entirely focused on video. In it, the artist develops a new language, presenting an image of the city in slow motion.
“With my work, I try to delve into the different layers that make up the edifice of history, to take the shadows cast by this uniform development model and try to understand what lies behind it.”
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