Bianca Isabel Garcia

What is your full name?

Bianca Isabel Garcia.

What is your first name?

Bianca.

Where were you born?

Baguio, Philippines.

Where do you currently reside and work?

Toronto, Canada.

What is your educational background?

I obtained an MA in Fashion from Toronto Metropolitan University and BA in Art History and Women's Studies from the University of Georgia, Athens.

What are other details of experiences, work or otherwise, that have led you to your current work?

My parents taught me practical hand sewing and mending techniques when I was a child, and later as an adult, I taught myself how to mend holes in my socks through darning, which was my first entry into weaving. Even though the learning process can be full of errors and despair and frustration, there is nothing like the feeling of agency and self-confidence that comes with mending a garment.

I have also discovered that it can be so fulfilling to learn a new skill with others. My friend Nia Hammer was the first person to introduce me to a sewing machine, and my friend and collaborator Norwin Anne taught me how to weave a basahan, which is a cloth hand woven from scrap fabric. When I lived in Athens, Georgia, I worked at a vintage shop called Atomic, where the owner Stephanie Williamson provided a space in which I could not only nurture my creative expression but also critically reflect on how race, class, and gender colour my lived experience.

Similarly, in Toronto, I have both learned and taught creative mending practices in the slow fashion community that Norwin Anne brought together over the past few years with From Here to Wear x East End Arts.

How would you describe your practice/business?

My work in fashion research and textile art involves creative reckonings with the legacies of American imperialism and Philippine history. Translating encounters of text and textile toward generational healing, my art practice blends garment mending, historical/archival research, creative writing, and Philippine weaving traditions.

What are the highlight projects in your career so far?

I recently created Kamalayan Playground, a solo textile installation that questions the power dynamic between the Philippines and the United States. It involves the Filipino childhood game pabitin and a hopscotch game made out of basahan.

I also created another installation called Nosebleed, the second iteration of my text(ile) parol sculptures in which I used visible mending as a cathartic means of healing from the grief of losing my first language. Both of these works were presented at Unravelling (2025), an exhibition by the artist collective habi habi po, featured at Gallery 101 in Ottawa, Canada.

What are you currently working on?

I am excited to start learning Tagalog and to weave the language learning process into my art practice, especially my future crossword explorations with basahan. I have recently been spending more time with my sewing machine as I try my hand at quilting and patchwork, and I have plans to learn how to weave on a table loom and floor loom. I also have a food zine in the works!

Instagram: @bianca.isabel_
Website: www.biancaisabelgarcia.com