Vhils — Alexandre Farto — is a Portuguese artist known for a technique unlike any other in public art: he carves into walls. Using chisels, hammers, and power tools, he removes the surface of a building to reveal a portrait beneath. RETNA paints on walls; Vhils paints by taking away. In 2018, the two artists met in Echo Park, Los Angeles, to create a collaborative mural. The photograph shows a banner with RETNA's symbols, a warm glow behind it, a theatrical atmosphere.The finished mural presents a face carved into the wall by Vhils, with RETNA's calligraphy running around and through it — the symbols seeming to pierce the image. Vhils's technique is destruction as creation; RETNA's approach is marks as meaning. Together they produce something that feels three-dimensional, as though the wall itself is alive. The collaboration was about two artists with diametrically opposed methods finding the place where their practices intersect. Lisbon and Los Angeles. Carving and painting. Different languages, same conversation. The Echo Park mural stands as a testament to the possibilities that emerge when artists trust each other's processes completely.
