Artist Conversation with Consuelo Jimenez Underwood

Celebrated artist Consuelo Jimenez Underwood discusses craft, textile art, her creative process, and her Chicana and Huichol heritage. Underwood is joined in conversation by Nora Atkinson, the Fleur and Charles Bresler Curator-in-Charge of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Underwood’s artwork tells powerful stories centering on borders and identity from her American, Mexican, and Indigenous perspectives. By combining traditional fiber art techniques with untraditional materials such as barbed wire and safety pins, Underwood’s large-scale installations and weavings explore border crossings—from the physical crossing of the US-Mexico border to social, spiritual, and artistic borders as well.
 
This program was part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s annual Director’s Circle Dinner in 2022.