Olga de Amaral

Olga de Amaral (b. 1932, Bogotá) is a Colombian artist whose pioneering work has redefined the boundaries between textile, sculpture and painting. Over a career spanning more than six decades, she has transformed weaving into a medium of profound abstraction and spiritual resonance, blending ancestral techniques with contemporary sensibilities.

Trained in architectural design at the Colegio Mayor de Cundinamarca in Bogotá, de Amaral furthered her studies in textile design at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, where she was influenced by Finnish-American weaver Marianne Strengell. This education laid the foundation for her innovative approach to fibtr art, where she integrates materials such as horsehair, linen, gesso and precious metals — particularly gold and silver leaf — to create works that evoke both material richness and metaphysical depth.

De Amaral's signature series, including Alquimias, Estelas and Brumas, exemplify her exploration of light, texture and spatial perception. Her use of gold is deeply symbolic, referencing Colombia’s colonial past, indigenous cosmologies and the transcendent properties of light. These works transcend traditional classifications, existing at the intersection of art, craft and design.

Her contributions have been recognised globally. In 2021, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, debuted Olga de Amaral: To Weave a Rock, the first major touring retrospective of her work, which later travelled to the Cranbrook Art Museum. In 2024, the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris presented her most comprehensive European retrospective to date, featuring nearly 80 works spanning from the 1960s to the present. Her work was also included in the 60th Venice Biennale's central exhibition, Stranieri Ovunque (Foreigners Everywhere), curated by Adriano Pedrosa.

De Amaral's art is held in numerous prestigious collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Tate Modern (London), the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She continues to live and work in Bogotá, where her practice remains a testament to the enduring power of materiality and abstraction in contemporary art.