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Venezuelan-born textile artist María-Elena Pombo left for New York City in 2011, where she now lives in Brooklyn.
![Main cover](http://images.ctfassets.net/8otutru2e44g/2A6OwC4jN0tEP4TrwYBOfr/b55636b52cee793d13f67c5c985af2a3/fragmentario_1x1-min.jpg?w=1600&h=1600&fl=progressive&q=80&fm=jpg)
With a background in fashion design and industrial engineering, she uses by-products in Fragmentario, a five-year long project exploring culture and time.
![Main cover](http://images.ctfassets.net/8otutru2e44g/3yh9wYtxxSRnGhQM9iSSLR/a40a7448e0278588e29fe68f79306de3/avocado_textile_art_1x1_2.jpg?w=1600&h=1600&fl=progressive&q=80&fm=jpg)
Her new project, La Rentrada, proposes an avocado economy: ‘A world in which avocado seeds are used to make clay, bricks, ceramics, plastics, leathers, electricity and even a fuel for cars.’
![Main cover](http://images.ctfassets.net/8otutru2e44g/5akmgf2p49ZpknOyEGyxHx/3c6e936beea795300c05df096bf85e79/avocado_textile_art_1x1_3-min.jpg?w=1600&h=1600&fl=progressive&q=80&fm=jpg)
She collaborates with local restaurants, which send her leftover avocado seeds for her to hand-dye fabrics and experiment with.
![Main cover](http://images.ctfassets.net/8otutru2e44g/5qK9oCUMO4aYv9bMKRkQa3/e887862859148e184d416607a456b744/avocado_textile_art_1x1_4.jpg?w=1600&h=1600&fl=progressive&q=80&fm=jpg)
Jul 30, 2021
Photographed by
Bryan Banducci