HONG KONG.- Over The Influence is presenting Remains, a solo presentation featuring a new body of work developed in, and inspired by Hong Kong. Vhils’ practice has long been engaged with the urban context, and his works resonate with and reverberates the human experience of living in a contemporary megalopolis. Following the critically acclaimed institutional exhibitions of Vhils in 2016 in Hong Kong and 2017 in Macau, Remains is the artist’s first gallery exhibition in Hong Kong, weaving a poetic tale of the city through the lens of his recognizable artistic lexicon.

As he develops his first commercial body of work for Hong Kong, Vhils has taken this opportunity to reflect upon his past two-years living in the city. The time he has spent in Asia has had a significant impact on his own identity and, by extension, his work. Remains shares the stories of urbanites who breathe vitality into the densely populated urban epicenter. Coming together to present a collection of interlocking narratives, amassed through interviews, personal relationships, and public interactions over the past two years, Remains represents a multilayered view of the Hong Kong experience. Based on a variety of source material, from advertisements collected in Hong Kong streets to photographs of the urban landscape, the new series – including carved wooden doors, acid-etched metal plates, styrofoam dioramas, and hand-carved billboards – intentionally dilutes the readability of each individual portrayed, a reflection on how identity is both formed and affected by the city's visual discourse.

This exhibition can be seen as a direct continuation of the work Vhils has been developing over the last two years, and showcases the artist’s diverse and mature techniques both working on the streets as well as within the confines of a white cube space. Remains at Over The Influence embodies the core concepts important to the artist, exploring symbolic reflections on identity, urban life, and the passage of time, bringing with him the relationship of interdependence between people and the environment wherever his unique artistic language travels.

Portuguese visual artist Alexandre Farto aka Vhils (b. 1987) has developed a unique visual language based on the removal of the surface layers of walls and other media with non-conventional tools and techniques, establishing symbolic reflections on identity, the relationship of interdependence between people and the surrounding environment, and life in contemporary urban societies, as well as the impact of development, the passage of time, and material transformation. Having begun to interact with the urban environment through the practice of graffiti in the early 2000s, Vhils has been hailed as one of the most innovative artists of his generation. His poignant, poetic portraits chiselled into flaking walls can be seen adorning cityscapes around the world. Based on his aesthetics of vandalism, Vhils destroys as a means to create. He carves, cuts, drills, etches and blasts his way through the layers of materials. Yet, like an archaeologist, he removes in order to expose, bringing to light the beauty that lies trapped beneath the surface of things.

Since 2005, he has presented his work in over 30 countries around the world in solo and group exhibitions, site-specific art interventions, artistic events and projects in various contexts – from working with communities in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, to collaborations with reputed artistic and museological institutions such as the EDP Foundation (Lisbon), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Barbican Centre (London), CAFA Art Museum (Beijing), or the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (San Diego), among others. An avid experimentalist, besides his groundbreaking bas-relief carving technique – which forms the basis of the “Scratching the Surface” project –, Vhils has been developing his personal aesthetics in a plurality of media: from stencil painting to metal etching, from pyrotechnic explosions and video to sculptural installations. He has also directed several music videos, short films, and one stage production.

Vhils works with several leading galleries, including Vera Cortês Gallery (Portugal), Lazarides gallery (United Kingdom), Magda Danysz Gallery (France and Mainland China), and Over the Influence gallery (Hong Kong and USA). His work is represented in several public and private collections in various countries.