Dex Fernandez: 310E44R822

Opens October 30, 2015

October 30 – December 20, 2015

Dex Fernandez embroidery collages on colorful wall mural
Dex Fernandez Good Morning HOBOS, 2015 Acrylic, ink and embroidery on digital photograph 24 1⁄2 x 18 1⁄2 in. / 62.3 x 46.8 cm.
Dex Fernandez artwork detail
Dex Fernandez artwork on colorful mural installation
Don’t Be a Stranger, 2015 Acrylic, ink and embroidery on digital photograph 24 1⁄2 x 18 1⁄2 in. / 62.3 x 46.8 cm.
Dex Fernandez artwork on colorful mural installation
Dex Fernandez Meth Museum DOT Org, 2015 Acrylic, ink and embroidery on digital photograph 25 x 18 7⁄8 in. / 63.5 x 48 cm.
Dex Fernandez Meth Museum DOT Org, 2015 Acrylic, ink and embroidery on digital photograph 25 x 18 7⁄8 in. / 63.5 x 48 cm.
Dex Fernandez artwork and animation installation
Dex Fernandez Walkin' round the hood's effin awesome with my favorite loafers, 2015 Black and white animated film with soundtrack 2:14 min. duration
Dex Fernandez artwork on colorful mural installation
Dex Fernandez Death in the Boiler Room, 2015 Acrylic, ink, mylar collage and embroidery on digital photograph 24 1⁄2 x 18 1⁄2 in. / 62.3 x 46.8 cm.
Dex Fernandez Don’t Be Scared, 2015 Acrylic, ink, gold leaf, mylar collage and embroidery on digital photograph 25 x 18 7⁄8 in. / 63.5 x 48 cm.
Dex Fernandez Shernita, 2015 Acrylic, ink  and embroidery on digital photograph 25 x 18 7⁄8 in. / 63.5 x 48 cm.
Dex Fernandez artwork and color tape on wall
Dex Fernandez paint and embroidery on photograph
Dex Fernandez 310E44R822, 2015 Acrylic, ink and embroidery on digital photograph 25 x 18 7⁄8 in. / 63.5 x 48 cm.
Dex Fernandez Detail
Dex Fernandez detail
Dex Fernandez artwork on colorful mural installation
Dex Fernandez Plankton, 2015 Acrylic, ink, mylar collage and embroidery on digital photograph 25 x 18 7⁄8 in. / 63.5 x 48 cm.
Dex Fernandez Mr. Cornflake, 2015 Acrylic, ink, gold leaf and embroidery on digital photograph 18 1⁄2 x 24 1⁄2 in. / 46.8 x 62.3 cm.
Dex Fernandez All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone, 2015 Acrylic, ink and embroidery on digital photograph 25 x 18 7⁄8 in. / 63.5 x 48 cm.
Dex Fernandez Entrap, 2015 Acrylic, ink and embroidery on digital photograph 24 1⁄2 x 18 1⁄2 in. / 62.3 x 46.8 cm.
Dex Fernandez ATM, 2015 Acrylic, ink and embroidery on digital photograph 24 1⁄2 x 18 1⁄2 in. / 62.3 x 46.8 cm.
Dex Fernandez Burboun, 2015 Acrylic, ink, gold leaf and embroidery on digital photograph 24 1⁄2 x 18 1⁄2 in. / 62.3 x 46.8 cm.

Press Release

Dex Fernandez: 310E44R822

October 30 - November 29, 2015 (EXTENDED THROUGH DECEMBER 20TH 2015)
Opening reception Friday October 30th, 6-8 PM

Dex Fernandez is a graffiti artist from Manila, Philippines, He combines the frenzied energy and speedy overall-designs of his street murals and characters with mixed-media constructions to produce eccentrically decorated images and installations. Often, Fernandez uses his own digital photographs as a base upon which he builds colorful hand-painted design motifs that range from pure pattern to religious symbols, body parts, cartoons, and tattoos. His work references both high and low art, history and biology, beauty and crudeness, innocence and sexuality. Fernandez expresses himself through a wide range of formats, including wall murals, street sticker art, altered photographs and even fashion and accessories. The world is very much his canvas, he is both influenced by and paints on it.

For the last several months Fernandez has been in the United States participating in the Asian Arts Council residency program *. This exhibition is an amalgam of many aspects of the artist’s output, including some of the work he has constructed through the residency. Fernandez recently completed an animation which is projected on one of the gallery’s walls. Entitled "Walkin' round the hood's effin awesome with my favorite loafers" the black and white film is a series of shifting biomorphic forms that bring the artist’s mural work to life. The film is accentuated by an electronic  soundtrack that Fernandez composed at the same time, syncopated in a defibrillated dissonance that is itself one of the creatures we are watch form and dissolve.

This colorless apparition is contrasted by the rest of the exhibition, which includes a mural that the artist has constructed on the gallery's now fluorescent yellow main wall. Engaging with the wall work are a series of Fernandez’s mixed-media collages. Based on digital photographs he has taken of friends and fellow artists, Dex hand-paints intricate and colorful patterns and shapes on and around the figures. These design motifs range from pure pattern to religious symbols, body parts, cartoons, and tattoo. They exaggerate and distort the faces of the subjects, acting almost like masks that partially obscure individual identities. The painted illustrations are combined with embroidered details, which the artist stitches using bright neon-colored thread. These works interact with the wall mural they are installed on with the addition of cut-out paper shapes. Also biomorphic, brightly colored and densely illustrated, these details extend the picture’s designs outside the physical borders of the photographs, and in this way become a part of the wall mural itself. 

While he has been in New York City the artist has also been placing his sticker art around the city, on buildings, subways and everywhere in-between. The stickers are the artist’s creation called Garapata, a many legged creature that was inspired by the ticks that invaded his house via family pets when he was a child. These hand-painted creatures have now been set loose to invade the city, in places both unusual and familiar alike.

The opening of the exhibition will be accompanied by a live drum machine performance by sound artist Jefferson Wells. This event is part of the 10th edition ofAsia Contemporary Art Week (ACAW) – A dynamic platform that connects over 40 New York and Asia based art institutions to present cutting-edge exhibitions, innovative projects, provocative dialogues and festivities. We are excited to be a participating member of this citywide event.

The Asian Cultural Council supports cultural exchange by awarding grants to artists, scholars, and arts and humanities professionals, as well as organizations and educational institutions from the United States and Asia for research, study, and creative work in the United States and Asia and within the countries of Asia. Since 1963, ACC has made approximately 6,000 grants to individuals and organizations representing a wide range of creative disciplines and a vast geography