Ana Pellicer (1943-2025, Mexico City) was a pioneering sculptor, educator, and environmentalist whose work bridges the realms of contemporary art, artisanal heritage, and social transformation. Pellicer studied plastic arts at The Art Students League and The New School in New York before returning to Mexico to apprentice under sculptor James Metcalf in Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacán — a town renowned for its pre-Hispanic coppersmithing tradition. She immersed herself in this tradition, becoming one of the few contemporary artists to master and reinvent copper as a sculptural medium through traditional forging and smelting techniques. Living and working in Santa Clara del Cobre for over five decades, Pellicer became a pivotal figure in reviving and expanding the local artisan culture. She co-founded the Adolfo Best Maugard School of Arts and Techniques with James Metcalf in 1973, introducing technical training and opening the field of coppersmithing to women for the first time. Her efforts helped redefine the identity of the town and its artisans, merging ancient techniques with new forms of expression. Her jewelry and sculptures draw on the myths and symbols of Mesoamerican cosmologies — from the rain god’s copper axe to the sacred rubber ball game — reinterpreting them through large-scale, performative and conceptual installations. Among her best-known projects is La Joyería de la Libertad (Jewelry for the Statue of Liberty), in which she created monumental copper jewelry to adorn the statue in celebration of its centenary. The works were exhibited at the World Trade Center in New York and later traveled internationally. Pellicer’s works have been exhibited in major institutions including Museo de Arte Moderno, Museo del Templo Mayor, Lincoln Center, Casa de América Latina (Madrid), the Amparo Museum (Puebla), and internationally in Paris, Rome, Lisbon, Zurich, Hanover, and New York. Her sculpture La Pelota (“The Ball”) — an homage to the Mesoamerican ballgame — traveled from Mexico to New York and Madrid as part of Mexico’s official contribution to the Quincentennial of the "Encounter of Two Worlds". Alongside her artistic practice, Pellicer served as Director of Artisanal Production at FONART (Fondo Nacional para el Fomento de las Artesanías) and has been a tireless advocate for Mexico’s popular arts. Her work has opened new dialogues between contemporary practice and ancestral knowledge. A committed environmentalist, Pellicer spent the last 30 years reforesting the Mesa de San Miguel, the mountain above Santa Clara del Cobre, cultivating native cedar, pine, and oak trees — a now-celebrated ecological reserve. Her work is held in public and private collections in Mexico, the U.S., France, and Switzerland.