Claudia Rodríguez-Biezunski

The Artist

Claudia Rodriguez-Biezunski is a Mexican-American textile artist and the founder of Sew Loka, a sewing studio, school, and small business in San Diego’s Barrio Logan neighborhood. Over 13 years, she has developed a practice that combines original garment construction, reuse of discarded textiles, teaching, and community events. Her work features visible stitching, sculptural piecing, bold color, and imagery drawn from folk traditions. Through commissions, exhibitions, and workshops, she explores clothing as a form of artistic expression and a material connection to culture and everyday life. Her exhibition history includes Visions Museum of Textile Art, Centro Cultural de la Raza, and La Jolla Historical Society. A jacket she created was recently acquired for the Mingei International Museum’s permanent collection. Rodriguez-Biezunski also produces Slow Fashion Day, a public festival celebrating sustainable fashion, and is developing The Art of Sewing, a documentary project with KPBS.

Claudia Rodríguez-Biezunski

The Project

Claudia Rodriguez-Biezunski will create 12–15 wearable artworks from secondhand clothing sourced in Tijuana’s markets. The project follows the movement of discarded American clothing across the border, reimagining its return to San Diego as art. At her Sew Loka studio in Barrio Logan, Rodriguez-Biezunski will take garments apart and reconstruct them using visible stitching, repair, bold color, and sculptural forms. She plans to commission a Tijuana-based painter to collaborate from the beginning, developing imagery that shapes—and is shaped by—each garment’s construction. The collection will invite viewers to consider the histories clothing carries: where it was made, who wore it, why it was discarded, and how it gains new value. Photographs and video by her partner, Manny Biezunski, will document the sourcing, sewing, and painting on both sides of the border. Public activities will include exhibitions at Sew Loka and a planned additional San Diego venue, free bilingual sewing workshops, and a culminating runway presentation at Slow Fashion Day 2027. Bringing textile art and painting together, the project will explore the region’s connections through clothing, creative collaboration, and the possibilities of materials too often treated as waste.

Get involved.

Join a team of volunteers and influencers supporting art and artists.

Contact Us