Ants

Gabino Méndez García

Ants is a series of three handwoven textile works connected by fine black threads, creating a quiet conversation between the individual pieces.

The composition reflects Gabino Méndez García's contemporary approach to weaving, where line, space and movement become the central elements. Rather than relying on traditional repeated motifs, Gabino allows the structure of the loom and the movement of the thread to guide the work, creating an organic sense of connection between each textile.

The three pieces can be viewed individually or together, with the black threads extending beyond the woven surfaces to create a sense of movement and relationship—like something living that travels between them.

Created by hand on a traditional loom in Gabino's family workshop in San Pablo Villa de Mitla, Oaxaca, Ants reflects the artist's ongoing exploration of how a centuries-old textile tradition can become a contemporary language.

Artist: Gabino Méndez García
Title: Ants
Origin: Mitla, Oaxaca, Mexico
Technique: Handwoven textile
Format: Three connected textile works
Each piece is individually woven and unique.

The Artist: Gabino Méndez García

Contemporary Textile Artist | Mitla, Oaxaca

Gabino Méndez García comes from a multigenerational family of weavers in San Pablo Villa de Mitla, Oaxaca, where the family workshop, Artelar, has carried the tradition of weaving forward for generations. He learned the craft alongside his father, master weaver Emiliano Méndez Aguilar, absorbing the discipline, precision and deep knowledge of the loom that define the family's work.

His work was presented at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca in presencia, ausencia, an exhibition exploring memory, inheritance and the evolution of traditional weaving into a deeply personal contemporary practice.

After his father's passing in 2021, Gabino returned to the loom not only as a weaver, but as an artist. What began as a way to process loss became an exploration of his own creative language.

Gabino's work bridges tradition and contemporary art. Inspired by architecture, geometry, light and shadow, he creates textiles that feel almost like drawings or abstract landscapes. Lines move freely across the surface, intersecting and drifting rather than following predetermined patterns. The spaces between them—the pauses, openings and empty fields—are as important as the threads themselves.

Each piece is woven by hand on the loom, carrying both the knowledge passed down through generations and Gabino's own evolving artistic vision.

At found., we are drawn to work like Gabino's because it reminds us that craft is not static. Traditions remain alive when artists are given the freedom to carry them somewhere new.