“Undocumented Borderlands,” an exhibition by contemporary fiber artist and weaver Consuelo Jiménez Underwood, will be mounted Sept. 8-30 at the Conley Art Gallery in the Phebe Conley Art Building  at California State University, Fresno.

“Undocumented Borderlands” is the first exhibition of a year-long series of events on the theme of immigration, migration and labor hosted by the Center of Creativity and the Arts at Fresno State. The exhibition was organized by Julia Bradshaw, an assistant professor of art and design in the university’s Department of Art and Design, part of the College of Arts and Humanities.

Created specifically for the Conley Gallery, “Undocumented Borderlands” links physical and cultural borders and their environments. It is a representation of the 10 pairs of sister cities on the U.S./Mexico border and their environmental and political struggles.

By using textiles, paint, barbed-wires and nails, Jiménez Underwood captures the tension and the beauty of the lands along the United State’s southern border with Mexico.

“My art is a combination of land, spirit and struggle” says Jiménez Underwood “and by weaving historical, social and personal references into my artwork I am representing cultural resistance and spirituality.”

Melding weaving and fiber techniques, Jiménez Underwood encourages viewers to consider borders as cultural constructs.

Dr. Clara Román-Odio of Kenyon College in Ohio wrote that Jiménez Underwood “presents us with multiple iterations of the simple tortilla, as a symbol of the pervasiveness of indigenous cultures, and of the immemorial eating habits they shared. Masterfully she also employs the tortilla as a platform to engage the viewer in political commentary about national territories, while addressing spirituality as a form of cultural resistance.”

Born in Sacramento in 1949, Jiménez Underwood is the daughter of migrant agricultural workers. Her work is in the collections of the Oakland Art Museum, American Art Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Art and Design in New York.

She has degrees in religious studies and art, and is an emeritus professor of textile art at San Jose State University.

To launch the exhibition, the public is invited to a reception for the artist 5-8 p.m. Sept.  8 and to an artist lecture at 6 o’clock at Conley Art Room 101. The Conley Gallery is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday.

For more info, contact Bradshaw, jbradshaw@csufresno.edu/508.596.0705.

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Fresno State Art & Design