The best contemporary artists - Vhils

By far the artist that has made more of an impact on me in recent times than any other is the wonderfully talented and incredibly young Portuguese contemporary artist that goes by the pseudonym of Vhils, real name Alexandre Farto.

I first noticed his work at The Cans Festival in London May 2008 where his piece was the stand out work of the Festival, no small achievement when you consider some of the other more famous names involved in that weekends painting. His piece a white washed simple stencil, chiselling the layers and destroying the plaster on the wall that gave an aged character and almost 3D affect, stunning and totally unique stuff, I visited it several times.

The next time I got to see any more of Vhils work would be something like a year later at the perfectly named Scratching the Surface exhibition at The Lazarides Galleries in London’s Soho, the galleries owned by Steve Lazarides, a man with a keen eye for spotting up and coming art talent and ex manager and agent to uber famous Bristol street artist Banksy.

I must admit to being a bit scared that Vhils would be a one trick pony and that seeing several destroyed walls in the same place and indoors at that might lessen the impact, but I should not have worried, the depth and diversity of work on show in that exhibition was extraordinary, once again this very young man from Portugal had blown me away.

The destroyed walls were there, several of them too and they fit perfectly well into the galleries old sadomasochist's shop surroundings, the pieces of debris that had fallen when removed to make the layers of the picture, neatly swept up and left at the foot of the images. It was good to see them, like seeing an old friend after a long absence but the real joy of this show was what else was included.

The rest of the images on show had been added to a flotsam and jetsam of found and rescued mediums, from rusty old steel sheets, a collection of used street bill board posters and wooden panels including beaten up doors. The metal sheets had reached a burning orange colour of corrosion, the image had been helped along with acid of some kind, the wooden doors and panels had been hacked at as if they had spent the weekend in some desolate mountain retreat with a cabin fevered but artistic Jack Nicholson.

The billboard posters had been left in the large clumps they had formed when being stripped from their position advertising whatever unwanted and unnecessary item the marketing companies had been paid to force on us as we pass by them. Simple stencil images and urban landscapes had been slapped onto them to great effect, their placement on the walls of this gallery exhibition a vast improvement on the posters original consumer intention.

Since my first sighting of his work at the Cans festival, Alexandre has been quite prolific, as well as the show above he has also been part of exhibitions in several cities around the world, including New York and the Fame Festival held in Italy. Images from all these shows and more can be found at his website, his output is truly astounding.

Back in England, October 2010 and the art world’s eyes are firmly fixed on London, the up market Frieze Art Fair held annually in Regents Park, the new and free Moniker Art Fair held at the wonderful space of Village Underground in Shoreditch. Adding to these events is Vhils and the Lazarides Galleries who are also putting on a exhibition, like Moniker its free to attend and it’s called Hells Half Acre, by all accounts a spooky, unsettling show held at the Old Vic Tunnels at the back of Waterloo Station.

Vhils contribution to this show, a wall with the chiselled out portrait of disgraced ex stock broker and American con-man Bernard Madoff, presently serving 150 years for ripping off billions of Dollars from victims. I am very much looking forward to seeing this piece and everything else this extremely talented Portuguese artist has to offer in the future.