Elements

Gabino Méndez García

Elements is a series of four woven panels in natural cotton, each marked by a distinct black composition. This represents two of the elements, earth and air. 

Across the four works, Gabino explores the visual language of the natural world through line, movement and form. The compositions evoke elemental forces—at times suggesting land, water, air and movement—while remaining open to interpretation. Rather than illustrating nature literally, Gabino reduces it to its most essential forms.

The continuity of the weaving creates a relationship between the four panels, allowing each work to stand independently while remaining part of a larger composition. Against the quiet tonal ground of natural cotton, the black thread becomes a study in contrast, rhythm and movement.

Like much of Gabino's work, Elements sits between textile tradition and contemporary abstraction. The familiar language of the loom becomes a way of exploring the shapes and rhythms found beyond it.

Handwoven in Mitla, Oaxaca, the series carries forward a multigenerational weaving tradition while reflecting Gabino's distinctly contemporary artistic voice.

Artist: Gabino Méndez García
Title: Elements
Origin: San Pablo Villa de Mitla, Oaxaca, Mexico
Material: Natural cotton and black thread
Technique: Handwoven on traditional loom
Format: Four continuously woven panels

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.