Alexandre Farto aka Vhils - Pattern

Portuguese artist Alexandre Farto, known as Vhils, began his career as a graffiti writer in the early 2000s, developing a practice rooted in direct interaction with the urban environment. Approaching the city like a contemporary archaeologist, he removes layers of material to reflect on urban development, growing uniformity, and their effects on landscapes and human identity worldwide.

Working within the concept of creative destruction, Vhils reveals what lies beneath surfaces by carving, drilling, cutting, and blasting walls and other materials, transforming what the city discards into powerful visual statements. His carving technique, central to the Scratching the Surface Project and first presented publicly in 2007, is widely regarded as one of the most innovative approaches to public-space art in recent decades.

His work combines brutality and poetry, addressing themes of identity, memory, resistance, and the tension between individual aspirations and the pressures of contemporary urban life. Influenced by his upbringing in Seixal and by Portugal’s rapid urban transformation in the late 20th century, Vhils sees city walls as repositories of social and historical memory.

Using unconventional tools and a wide range of media, from bas-relief carvings and metal etching to video, installation, and sculpture, his work has been exhibited internationally in major institutions and public contexts across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.