#garapata

GC: 1, 2, 3

3 February to 4 March 2018 Pasilyo Guillermo Tolentino (3F Hallway Gallery) Artist's reception: 15 February, Thursday, 6pm

GC: 1, 2, 3 is an ode to Garapata, a character Dex Fernandez created based on the ticks that infested a dog they had when he was a kid. This experience left a big impression on Fernandez, which he carried with him when he entered the world of graffiti and street art in 2006. Since then, the infestation has spread far and wide across cities around the world and in forms outside the canvas. His participatory approach to art gives the audience the power to infest and become hosts as they engaged directly in the creative process of his several shows. GC: 1, 2, 3 is a video narrative split into three chapters showing his past collaborations. We map the growth of the artist in the replays, pauses, and repeats of the images. The looping of images, in a way, resembles the processes, internal and external, that transformed Fernandez and his art. The manual component of inclusion and selection is central to the development of both the artist and his practice. The entire process is a loop in itself.

Born 1984 in Caloocan, Philippines, Dex Fernandez is an interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in Manila, Philippines. He is currently known for his ongoing street art project called Garapata. Fernandez’s eclectic compositions challenge the traditional definitions of high culture and fine art. In 2015, he became a recipient of 13 Artists Award by the Cultural Center of the Philippines. His works been a part of numerous local and international exhibitions, shown in spaces such as UP Vargas Museum, Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), Museum of Design and Contemporary Arts (MCAD), Pablo Gallery, West Gallery, Drawing Room Contemporary Arts, Pinto Art Museum and Silverlens in Manila, as well as Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Primo Marella Gallery in Italy, Topaz Arts in New York, Osage Foundation, Lightbomb Contemporary and Rossi & Rossi in Hong Kong, 1am Gallery in San Francisco and Owen James Gallery in Brooklyn, NYC. Fernandez also participated in the first Urban Art Fair in Paris, (2016) and Singapore Art Biennale 2016. He also completed residency programs at Vermont Studio Centre (2011), Ping Pong Art Space Taiwan (2012), Lir Art Space, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2013) Asian Cultural Council in New York, Fine Arts Work Center, Massachusetts (2015), Ongoing Art Center, Tokyo (2016).

Fernandez employs a range of techniques, from collage to freehand drawing and photography, to create layered portraits and expansive murals that challenge the notions of high and low art. In this part, he incorporated the value of space as an element of his work. He uses walls, window glasses and murals as the medium of his graffities that enabled his works to breathe freely. 

Dex Fernandez's art is informed by everyday experiences and the people he meets and encounters. Titled as a contemporary artist, for him, his works are meant to trigger an audience into thinking about social and political issues around them. Often, he uses elements of fun and humor as satire to open up critical reflections on pressing issues. 

Garapata has spread all over the world, from streets, to buses and car windows, truly it's role as a garapata has made it to its peakest. Tote bags, electricity posts and shirts have those wide, expressive eyes, sharp nose, smiling mouth and 5 feet. Using appropriateness, affords to morph and scale the character in infinite ways without losing touch of its essence. Painted on different types of texture exhibited hybridity. The versatility of this character is enabled by its identifiable basic form, which Fernandez said is a product of evolution, which was guided by his advertising sensibilities. 

He conceptualized the Garapata as an embodiment of the resiliency of the Filipino people. And that is where the symbolism takes place even deeper.

information source:

https://businessmirror.com.ph/2019/09/10/garapata-used-to-have-hands/

https://ocula.com/artists/dex-fernandez/