Dex Fernandez
The whole process of drawing is very meditative to me. I feel like I'm traveling to a different space and time."
This statement to Artes de las Filipinas seems to be key behind understanding Dex Fernandez' explosion of imagery. Describing his drawing process further, he says, "I am in transit when drawing the lines, spontaneously and naturally high. I think about the story in my mind and translate it directly to the wall. I feel like I’m going to a different dimension and that I become part of my self-made world everytime I lose connection from reality."
He takes the viewer on a similar trip as the details of his dense pictures images expand to our mind's view. We travel from effect to effect, overwhelmed by patterns. Forms, both recognizable and strange, emerge, transform, or eat one another. What you have is highly-polished chaos, born out of the discipline and materials of a designer.
But if drawing is the operation underpining all of this chaos, it's Garapata, a creature/motif that features in many of his works, that suggests it's effect to us, a kind of glorious hedonistic and heady infestation. Our pleasure, however, is drawn from his own personal narratives, at times grave or sentimental. As he puts it, "The results are infested walls composed of stories straight from my brain."
Dex Fernandez is a Filipino mutli-disciplinary artist, known primarily for labor intensive paintings, collages, drawings, and murals. He has had serveral solo exhibitions in the Philippines and internationally.
Dex' portrait is from Kalsada. Many of the images are from his 2019 solo show, 22ESB75CC, at Finale Art File in Manila and his 2015 solo show, 310E44R822, at Owen James Gallery.