NEW YORK, NY.- Ruiz-Healy Art presents two concurrent solo exhibitions from Consuelo Jimenez Underwood at both the San Antonio and New York City galleries. Consuelo Jimenez Underwood: One Nation Underground opened at the San Antonio gallery on Wednesday, November 2. Consuelo Jimenez Underwood: Threads from Border-landia opens at the New York City gallery on Thursday, November 17, with an opening reception from 6:00 - 8:00 PM.
“Redefining the practice of weaving, Jimenez Underwood works with repurposed barbed wire, yellow caution tape, safety pins, and plastic bags and crosses Indigenous, Chicana, European, and Euro-American art practices, pushing the arts of the Americas beyond Eurocentric aesthetics toward culturally hybrid and Indigenous understandings of art making. Jimenez Underwood’s redefinition of weaving and painting alongside the socially and environmentally engaged dimensions of her work position her as one of the most vital artists of our time.” - Excerpt from Consuelo Jimenez Underwood: Art, Weaving Vision, Pérez, Laura E. and Ann Marie Leimer, Editors, Duke University Press, 2022.
Consuelo Jimenez Underwood was born in Sacramento, California to a family of campesinos. As a youth she was placed in a fruit crate while her parents picked the rich agricultural fields and orchards from Sacramento to Calexico, California. It was during this time that Jimenez Underwood developed her unique tri-cultural perspective: Chicana/Indigenous/American. Using this voice Jimenez Underwood interweaves themes and imagery that reflect and revisit social memories.
Recent as well as historic works from Jimenez Underwood’s oeuvre are featured in both exhibitions. In San Antonio, One Nation Underground features a large-scale textile work that combines the United States and Mexico flags. Embellished with various fibers, fabric, and barbed wire, the work references the intermingling of culture along the U.S.-Mexico border. In New York City, the artist’s historical 1991 work Night Lights integrates silk screen and weaving techniques. Warholian images of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the Aztec goddess Coatlicue explore gender, spirituality, and icons.
