Portraits Carved in Walls by Alexandre Farto

It is a never ending discussion whether it’s street art or street crime, but no matter how severe the punishment could be (remember the story about 20-year-old Thomas Dolan and Thomas Whittaker, 18, who were given 15 and 12 month prison sentences respectively after admitting painting graffiti on trains and railways stations at Manchester Crown Court) the artists continue to do their thing.

We already had a lot of street art here on BoredPanda (OakoAk, Banksy, Julian Beever, Slinkachu, Robin Rhode), and today we have another incredibly talented artist for you –Alexandre Farto. Using abandoned and depleted buildings as his canvas, Alexandre creates fascinating large scale portraits by carefully scratching and chipping plasters out of walls.

Alexandre Farto, better known as Vhils, is a Portuguese street artist based in London. Born in 1987, he gained prominence when his work of a face carved into a wall appeared alongside a picture by street artist Banksy at the Cans Festival in London in 2008. A photograph of him creating the work appeared on the front page of The Times. He was later given space to show his work by Banksy’s agent, Steve Lazarides. Several of his works were featured in Outsiders, a collection of street art published by Century, 2008.^[1]

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