* This lot is sold to benefit the Asian Cultural Council

ABOUT THE WORK

Dex Fernandez is among the region’s most sought after and celebrated contemporary artists. Fernandez earned his Bachelor’s degree at the Technological University of the Philippines where he studied Fine Art and Advertising. He would then work as a graphic designer for a printing company before pursuing art full-time. His works are steeped in the inherently imaginative offerings of pop, street, and urban art. Through juxtaposition of religious iconography with pop imagery, children’s drawings, tattoo motives and cut outs from adult magazines, Fernandez is able to not only explore ideas and concepts inherent to our contemporary condition, but is also able to communicate it in a distinctly creative manner. His humorously rotund and many-legged Garapata,which means tick or flea in Filipino, has seemingly captured our collective imagination. Dex’s Garapata cannot only be found on his conventional pieces, but can be seen in the most peculiar places such as jeeps, buses, train stations, electric posts, and other urban and public spaces, and often come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and even colors. For Fernandez, Garapata, and Garapata’s inherent pervasiveness, is a metaphor for the resiliency and ubiquity of the Filipino people. In this piece titled Itty Bitty Bitchy Nice we see a collection of Garapata critters in a nuanced and comedic amalgamation of reveries. We also see how Fernandez explores the character further by depicting a number of them in new and novel ways, effectively emphasizing his communitarian approach to art.Done in his signature graphic style, the piece reflects the diversity of characters that exist within a connected community.