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Vhils

Insculpt #21

2014

Wood carving (carved and engraved salvaged door)

218 × 84 cm

Unique

Location: Paris, France

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About the artwork

Here, Vhils uses a narrow wooden door as a support. The use of such a material echoes his affiliation with urban art and his habit of working on facades. The artist conjures up an image by scratching the surface, returning to the original practice for which he is best known. Rather than adding layers to a support, Vhils chooses to "remove to reveal". The result is a face whose gaze stares back at the viewer. From this motif emanates a form of darkness, of melancholy: the lines of the boards are reminiscent of bars, and the traces of engraving resemble countless tiny scars. This work captures the gestural, material aspect of Vhils' artistic practice, bringing life to the textures he manipulates.

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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