"Guided by my ongoing exploration of the meaning of objects and their use, as well as an introspective reflection concerning the effects of recent global events, this new cycle captures different symbolic material elements of contemporary culture, encapsulating them in a latent state and allowing them to be preserved and rediscovered in the future."
- Vhils
Alexandre Farto aka VHILS, iconoclast artist holds a special place in the world of street art. He sculpts walls, tackles matter, searches the bowels of cities to reveal the invisible. From September 11, he presents his new research at Danysz Gallery - Shanghai, exploring both wood and posters and more recent materials in his work such as plexiglass or acrylic sheets. Never had he gone so far in the fragmentation of his images, he decomposes, he fossilizes, as if to capture the puzzle of our identities, snippets of our lives and our society.
This exhibition brings together a selection of nearly thirty unpublished works. Working on stone, metal, posters or wood, VHILS digs, sculpts and engraves. He works on textured layers, aiming to show how things change and evolve over time. By working through these layers he seeks to bring to the surface something of the essence that has been trapped beneath them, to highlight the different textures so that they can tell us about the place and the people who live there. Like suspended elements, the details of his pieces reveal the tension between the humanity of his works and the harsh reality of the world around us.
In these unstructured portraits, which are enriched by a multitude of urban references, Vhils evokes urban fragmentation : the fragmentation that results in the breakdown of the social identity of a city. He also explores the idea of visual fragmentation because "no other generation", he says, "has been so exposed to this incessant flow of information either on the street or on the screen. All this visual stimulation really defines the age we live in and has an impact on our attention span, which in turn is fragmented. Everything is accelerating, everything is going too fast.” These poetic and polymorphic works reflect on identity, life in urban societies, the identity of the people who make them up... Entering an exhibition of Vhils is like capturing a moment of humanity frozen in time.
Alexandre Farto, Portuguese artist, was spotted by Banksy at an early age. He studied at Central Saint Martins in London and his work is now on display worldwide. He has been exhibiting in China for nearly 10 years, and was the subject of a major solo exhibition at the CAFA art museum in 2018. “Latency” at Danysz Gallery, is his third exhibition in Shanghai.
