Dex Fernandez gathers Garapata’s growing tribe
As Filipino contemporary artist Dex Fernandez moves through his Cubao Expo store, he gestures animatedly, his dark hair falling across heavy-rimmed glasses. Around him are shelves of Garapata merchandise amid colorful canvases.
“Ang daming sumasabog sa utak ko na I want to do, pero I don’t have enough time and energy,” he says, his restless, creative energy evident in the eclectic mix of projects surrounding him.
The space embodies Fernandez’s own aesthetic—partly a gallery, partly a streetwear boutique—the exposed wood and concrete blurring the lines between high art and urban culture. Today, the artist wears his own creations, outfits adorned with the multi-legged Garapata creature that has become part and parcel of his artistic practice.
And while Fernandez has oscillated throughout mediums—from painting to street art, animation, and much-coveted merch—his latest solo exhibition at West Gallery, “GC:4: A Walk Home,” turns the Garapata on its (multiple) heels, this time toward the Garapata tribe.
A cast of 335
“GC:4” marks the fourth chapter of Fernandez’s Garanimation project, going back to what exhibition notes writer Weng Cahiles describes as “a return to the linear, unadorned walk at GC:1.”
Through 335 small portraits of close friends, supporters, and those who have left an imprint on the artist’s life and work, “Garapata infests them—colorful threads, loose lines, and abstract marks spill across each face, obscuring but never erasing the person underneath.”
Both intimate yet playful portraits, they sprawl across murals on the exhibition wall, swirling inside the Garapata’s whimsical universe. The show involves the community as active participants in the project, turning inward, in what Cahiles calls “a homecoming.”
A creative itch
Fernandez recalls how his signature multi-limbed creation was conceived closer to home—literally in his childhood home in Caloocan. His family had a pack of dogs and, at one point, there was an infestation of small parasites. The ticks infested the space, and as a solution, the dogs were removed.
The experience activated a creative itch that spread in both the artist’s mind and practice. After graduating from the Technological University of the Philippines’ fine arts program with a specialty in advertising in 2005, Fernandez worked as a graphic designer for a year and then moved to Saudi Arabia for another year before becoming a full-time artist. “During that time, I was also doing paintings, working while doing group shows.”
But that memory of those tiny parasites persisted. “It imprinted in my mind. I couldn’t let go of that experience until I studied fine arts,” he recalls. The memory manifested in early drawings, later evolving into a visual obsession, and eventually the core concept of Garapata’s infestation—traveling from street art to canvas.
(You’ve surely seen iterations of the character before, from concrete walls on main highways, gallery exhibitions, tote bags, H&M T-shirts, and more.)
One artist and two personas
For years, Fernandez divided his artistic personas. “Before, totally different ’yung practice ng Garapata sa kay Dex. Dex is more painting, mixed media, and gallery works. Unlike Garapata, which is more street art and merch. Mas accessible ang Garapata at ang life ni Dex is exclusive—for gallery only.”
Although maintaining two separate identities proved exhausting. “You’re dealing with two different entities, and I was wasting energy, so I was thinking, ‘I might as well make them one,’” Fernandez says.
This led to a sort of artistic symbiosis, much like the nature of the tick itself—as Garapata subsumed Dex, and Dex subsumed Garapata. The merger led to unexpected formats, and in 2025, Fernandez launched two designs for a collaboration with Ploom, where the devices incorporate the nose of the Garapata into the LED light.
“I created two different designs. One for Milan Design Week and one for a local edition,” he explains. “For Milan Design Week, it’s more bold and colorful. For Manila, it’s the classical black and white Garapata.”
“I wanted to integrate the LED light,” he continues, “Kasi gusto ko siyang gawin mas interactive na every time you switch on the device, mag-la-light up ’yung LED light sa nose ng character. So in a way they’re inviting the owner, like, ‘Hey, we’re here, we’re alive. Let’s have some pop and some fun.’”
Garapata among friends
Pacing back and forth throughout the Garapata store, Fernandez’s artistic process reflects his self-described ADHD energy. “I’m the type of person who could get easily bored with one thing. So what I would do is hanap ko ng ibang way or outlet para ma-depict ko ’yung work.”
His influences are just as varied, citing Andy Warhol’s business acumen and styling, Keith Haring’s energetic mark-making, Yayoi Kusama’s infinite rooms, Keiichi Tanaami’s colorful compositions, and David Shrigley’s social commentary as influences in his art-making. “You don’t have to read books for you to get wisdom. But reading their biography or their life is a way na rin para matuto ka in life.”
In “GC4,” Fernandez’s many movements create a path toward the people who have always been there along the way, creating a connective thread through the 335 portraits.
As for what comes next, Fernandez focuses on the present. “Hindi ko pa mapangako what would happen in the next 10 years. You never know. For sure, maraming opportunities and doors na mag-open for me.” He cites the physical store, a dream he’d harbored for years, marveling how “ten years ago, inisip ko na magkaroon ako ng physical store. And now, it’s happening.”
While the future is open-ended, the Garapata doesn’t seem ready to stop multiplying soon. From what started as a childhood memory in Caloocan, it has crawled onto both street and gallery walls, canvases, stickers, clothes, merch, and international collaborations.
And as the Garapata continues to proliferate, its perspective in “GC:4” seems to have subsumed some human influences—finding itself back among the people who helped it travel to all these heights in the first place.
“GC4: A Walk Home” runs from Sep. 10 to Oct. 10 at West Gallery, 48 West Ave. Quezon City
