TICK, TICK, BOOM

With a pencil, a parasite, and a pop-fed imagination, DEX FERNANDEZ draws outside the line and never stops moving.

- GABRIEL YAP

IT WAS IN THE DENSE GRID OF CALOOCAN WHERE DEX FERNANDEZ GREW UP. While children ran the streets with scraped knees on afternoons spent playing, the young Dex was in his room, sketching the characters he saw on television. Born in 1984, Fernandez’s instincts as a soon-to-be artist were shaped by what he gravitated to as a kid in the 90s. “I really liked drawing anime, like Voltes V, Dragon Ball, and Sailor Moon,” he says. “I didn’t know what fine arts was yet, but I knew I was different. While my friends played, I drew.”

That difference eventually shaped his identity as Garapata, a name now recognized across Manila’s art and street culture scene. For nearly two decades, his work has appeared in museums, murals, galleries, clothing, with some pieces even found underwater.

The path wasn't straightforward. After studying advertising in college, Fernandez worked for several years as a graphic designer, “I thought I was going to be in an office forever,” he says. That changed when a mural commission brought him to Saudi Arabia, where in that moment, the budding artist decided he was going to “quit everything.”