Installation artist Franco Mondini-Ruiz earned a bachelor's degree in English and a Juris Doctorate from St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas. He gave up his legal practice to focus on art in 1995.

Mondini-Ruiz is best known for his Infinito Botanica, a traditional Mexican herb and knickknack shop that he transformed into a piece of installation art. To him, not only were the shop and its contents part of the installation, but also the diverse cross section of San Antonians who visited it. Mondini-Ruiz participated in the 2000 Whitney Biennial, and has received awards including a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2000 and a Penny McCall Foundation Fellowship in 2002. His work has been exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego and El Museo del Barrio in New York.