Fresh from a very successful fair at the NBC Tent, we are on to the next one — AJ’s 2nd solo exhibition! It happens at the Pablo Gallery, Cubao X, Shop 7 Cubao Expo, Araneta Center, Cubao. Opening night is tomorrow, Thursday, at 7pm, and goes on until the end of June.

AJ Dimarucot is a graphic artist who uses the everyday t-shirt as his canvas for art. His commercial work has been picked up by U.S. retail and online stores like Urban Outfitters, Hot Topic, Karmaloop. He has designed work for young bands like Panic at the Disco, Paramore, and Phantom Planet. He is currently designing t-shirts for Michael Jackson’s final concert tour in London.

Wallflower brings his t-shirt canvases in the framework of a gallery setting for the first time. Central to Dimarucot’s works is the use of bold, all over prints and patterns. Vibrancy and energy are apparent even in his client work. In Wallflower, he continues the trend by appropriating found vintage wallpaper patterns as t-shirt decorations. By repurposing supposed background imagery as graphics on a t-shirt, he allows the t-shirt wearer (assuming it is worn) to ‘stand out’. By taking the imagery out of context, he uses “wall flowers” as an antidote to being a wallflower.

By also suggesting that the t-shirt is an extension of one’s personality, Dimarucot questions our own biases and reasons for wearing what we wear. Is it a consequence of a need for anonymity or a desire to be out of the ordinary?