Olga de Amaral

Olga de Amaral weaves in a language older than modernism and wider than tapestry. From her studio in Bogotá, she has spent more than six decades working wool, linen, cotton, and horsehair into surfaces layered with gesso, stucco, and gold leaf — textiles that reference pre-Columbian worship, Japanese kintsugi, and the spiritual craquelure of medieval icons.

The work moves between wall and floor, fabric and structure. Her Alquimia series reclaims gold as a substance of the sun and earth; her Fragmentos Completos intertwine gold leaf within hand-woven cloth. She has carved up interiors with hanging tapestries, created floating formations from yarn and plastic, and worked at architectural scale — including a six-story façade commission in 1976.

Born in 1932, trained at Cranbrook, and represented Colombia at the Venice Biennale, de Amaral holds work in collections from MoMA to the Tate. She calls her surfaces spaces of meditation, contemplation, and reflection — textures that speak about the texture of time.