VHILS

Portuguese artist Alexandre Farto (b. 1987) has visually interacted with the urban environment under the name Vhils since his days as a prolific graffiti writer in the early to mid-2000s.

His innovative bas-relief carving technique – which forms the basis of the Scratching the Surface project and which was presented to the public for the first time at the group exhibition VSP in Lisbon in 2007 and at the Cans Festival in London the following year – is been hailed as one of the most compelling approaches to art created on the streets in the last decade.