At 92, Olga de Amaral Is Still Pushing Fiber Art Forward – Artsy

25 February 2025

Colombian artist Olga de Amaral first discovered her love for textiles in the folds of her mother’s handiwork. Born in Bogotá in 1932, she was the eldest of eight siblings.

“I have a memory…that stayed in my mind: my mother caressing various types of fabrics, such as ruanas or blankets,” said Amaral, referring to the poncho-like garment made from heavy wool common in the mountains of Colombia. “She would run her hand over them, and the materials would come into direct contact with her skin. On other occasions, she would pick up objects and just watch them, and she passed on to me that appreciation for form, texture, and color.”

Handmade fiber, horsehair, plastic, and gold: The materials interlaced into Amaral’s textiles testify to her meticulous, lifelong attention to texture and form. For six decades, her sculptural, often colossal work has challenged categorizations of “craft” and “art,” an approach that has also brought newfound recognition for contemporaries in textile art Sheila Hicks and Magdalena Abakanowicz. At 92, Amaral is now receiving recognition for her intricate textiles, such as the “Brumas.” In these works, she paints geometric patterns directly onto cotton threads, creating diaphanous, three-dimensional forms that are meticulously arranged to shimmer and sway, not woven but constructed.

Twenty-three of the “Brumas” are currently hanging from the ceiling at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain as part of Amaral’s first European retrospective, on view until March 16th. This exhibition is the latest of a growing list of milestones since 2020, preceded by notable solo exhibitions at Lisson Gallery in London and New York, a traveling U.S. retrospective in 2021, and a spot in the 60th Venice Biennale exhibition last year.

Read the full interview via Artsy.

Image: Olga de Amaral in Casa Amaral, Bogota. © Diego Amaral / Archivo de la artista.