Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship finalist 2008 Vitor Dos Santos was born in Portugal and raised in Sydney. A bilingual artist who travelled throughout childhood, Vitor’s new series – with its signature use of charcoal, graphite, pencil, newspaper and acrylic paint – enables the artist to explore a disenchanted popular mass culture by provoking questions about language, travel, communication and social hierarchies. Vitor explains his practice: “Through an almost compulsive drawing process I was able to generate ideas and follow certain narratives, which led me to the absurdity of these paintings. Burst word bubbles, floating letters and clumsy figures with strange hats, subtly mock their own existence. The loose line work, rapid application of paint and childlike irreverence to formal etiquette only adds to the ironic disposition of the work.” Vitor currently lives and works at his studio in Brisbane.