Gabriel Rico sought a technique to translate the aesthetic and conceptual essence of his sculptures into a two-dimensional format, enhancing their visual and symbolic impact. His search led him to Nierika, a traditional technique of the Wixárika (Huichol) people, in which beeswax is spread onto wooden boards and hand-painted yarn is pressed into the surface to form intricate images. Used by Wixárika shamans to depict gods and visions, Nierika is not just a visual art form but it is considered a spiritual artifact—symbolizing the “gift of seeing” and a connection to ancestral worlds.
In this series, Rico reinterprets Nierika to bridge his own artistic visions with this ancestral method. His compositions transform sculptural forms into yarn-based images, where abstracted desert landscapes, deer, cacti, and symbols of contemporary desires—such as sports balls or gold coins—intersect with themes of spirituality, memory, and transformation. The use of pale gray spaces within the compositions echoes the conceptual gaps Rico explores in his practice, where fragmented imagery creates a sense of absence and reconstruction.
The works were produced in collaboration with the family workshop of master artisan Manolo Castro Montoya (“Muwieritemay”), ensuring an authentic engagement with the traditional method while recontextualizing it within Rico’s artistic language. Through this approach, the artist not only pays homage to Wixárika cosmology but also expands the symbolic power of Nierika, offering new interpretations of the relationship between form, meaning, and vision.