An Island of Light1- 30 September 2026
Lulú Osnaya
©Lulu Osnaya
Lulú Osnaya
©Yardena Garcia
Lulú Osnaya
©Lulu Osnaya
Lulú Osnaya
©David Osnaya
Lulú Osnaya
©Lulu Osnaya
Lulú Osnaya
©Mariana Achach

Lulú Osnaya

Textile sculptor

Magdalena Contreras, Mexico

Ritual, time and the fragility of matter

  • Lulú is a textile artist working across sculpture and installation
  • Her work draws inspiration from Mexico's funerary rituals
  • She works with onion-skin textiles and salt-crystallised paper sculptures

Time plays a central role in Lulú Osnaya's textile work, as she explores how her materials transform through human and environmental interaction. Drawing on funerary rituals in Mexico, her practice explores how transient materials can give form to what is often intangible. Lulú's background includes studying visual and textile arts at Konstfack University in Stockholm and industrial design at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She later worked with artisans in Japan and Mexico, and collaborated with backstrap loom weavers from Gubayelha in Oaxaca. These experiences shaped Lulú's understanding of textile art as both a social bond and a way of communicating across cultures. "I am interested in the small gestures that often go unnoticed and actions that carry intention," she says. "I try to give them presence and allow them to speak."

Lulú Osnaya is a master artisan: she began her career in 2011 and she started teaching in 2012.

INTERVIEW

My interest in contemporary art and craft, particularly textiles, led me to this path. I seek tools that expand the possibilities of materials while respecting their inherent qualities. By looking at our relationship with them through a traditional lens, I aim to translate these sensations into a global contemporary context.

I connect my work to a specific place by exploring the origin and symbolic dimension of different elements. I regard materials as living and autonomous, drawing from rituals surrounding death in Mexico, particularly within my family context, through textile creation and the repetition of symbolic gestures.

I transform traditional materials by experimenting with them to produce contemporary interpretations. I view tradition as a collective entity in constant evolution. I use it as a starting point for personal and reflective exploration.

I encounter stillness and silence in ceremonial spaces, domestic altars and memorials. This feeling stems from the care behind simple actions: placing a woven cloth beneath a stone or positioning an object so the light reaches it. These gestures contain the ceremonial within the everyday, granting new presence to what often goes unnoticed.

Lulú Osnaya

Textile sculptor

Magdalena Contreras, Mexico

ADDRESS

Address upon request, Magdalena Contreras, Mexico

AVAILABILITY

By appointment only

LANGUAGES

Spanish, English

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