The Golden Thread of Memory: Olga de Amaral Arrives at ICA Miami

The retrospective exhibition of artist Olga de Amaral at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami), opened on May 1 and will run until October 12, 2025, on the museum’s third floor in Miami’s Design District. This show celebrates the technical, symbolic, and poetic innovation of one of the most influential figures in contemporary textile art.

Matter Transformed Into Language

In a present saturated with screens and fleeting images, there are still artists who commit to the silence of materials, the rhythm of manual labor, and the ability of objects to contain history. It is at that intersection of form and spirituality where Olga de Amaral’s work resides. For over sixty years, this Colombian artist has redefined the meaning of contemporary textile art.

The exhibition at ICA Miami is not simply a retrospective — it is a journey into a poetic language woven from threads, pigments, metals, and a sensibility deeply connected to the symbolic geography of Latin America. More than 50 works reveal an aesthetic evolution that has remained true to a material ethic: what is woven becomes memory; what is crafted by hand becomes symbol.

Gold as a Threshold

One of the most consistent elements in Amaral’s work is her use of gold as a metaphor. The gold leaf that covers many of her pieces doesn’t merely reflect light — it transforms it. In her works, light becomes a living substance, shifting according to the viewer’s position. Gold evokes the sacred, the ancestral, but also the luminous landscape of the Andes and the artisanal practices that continue to survive on the margins of the global art market.

This material connects the sensory with the spiritual. In many pre-Columbian cultures, gold held no commercial value but was instead ritualistic. Amaral recovers this original significance and reinterprets it through a contemporary lens. The works resemble portable temples, architectures of silence, surfaces meant for meditation.

Fiber as Archive

Amaral’s use of cotton, linen, and natural fibers goes far beyond technical application. In her hands, weaving becomes memory. Every thread is a unit of time, an act of persistence. In a world that prizes speed, her works invite stillness, contemplation, and reflection on what has been braided into each piece.

In this sense, her art becomes an emotional archive. Her works evoke an archaeology of the intangible: geometric forms, folds, and transparencies suggest something unsaid but deeply felt, as though each piece were a letter written in a secret language.

A Body Without Borders

One of Amaral’s most remarkable achievements has been her liberation of textiles from conventional boundaries. Her works are neither paintings, nor sculptures, nor installations — they are all these things at once. They hang from the ceiling, rest on the floor, float in space. They avoid frames, symmetry, and rigidity, inhabiting the air itself.

This unruly quality renders her works alive. They do not strive for technical dominance but for resonance. Each piece engages with the space around it, transforms it, and turns it into an extension of the artistic gesture.

A Latin American Gesture in Global Dialogue

Despite her international acclaim, Olga de Amaral has never abandoned her Latin American perspective. She has not followed the trends of the global art world, nor diluted her identity. Instead, she has made her place of origin a source of meaning, crafting a symbolic cartography from which she speaks to the world.

This exhibition at ICA Miami is also an opportunity to spotlight the role of contemporary Latin American textile art in major cultural institutions. The show honors the career of an artist who has developed a unique language while preserving the intimacy of her roots.

ICA as a Vessel for the Essential

Located in the heart of Miami’s Design District, the Institute of Contemporary Art has become a platform for artists who blur the boundaries of art. By hosting Olga de Amaral’s work, the museum reinforces its commitment to practices that challenge and expand ways of seeing, feeling, and thinking.

The exhibition layout offers an immersive experience. Amaral’s works find a context here where their materials can speak without interruption or distraction, at the slow rhythm demanded by contemplation and wonder.

© Olga de Amaral (Photo: © Diego Amaral)

A Legacy Interwoven

With this exhibition, Amaral revisits her past while proposing a vision for the future. Far from growing obsolete, her work seems increasingly relevant. In times of ecological crisis, social fragmentation, and weakened human connections, her woven pieces offer an image of resistance: one of care, endurance, and resilience — thread by thread.

From Bogotá to Miami, from indigenous looms to the world’s most renowned museums, Olga de Amaral’s work continues to expand the possibilities of contemporary textile art, demonstrating that beauty, spirituality, and technique can indeed be one and the same.

Practical Information:

•  Exhibition: Olga de Amaral: The Woven Cosmos
•  Venue: Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami
•  Dates: May 1 – October 12, 2025
•  Admission: Free with prior registration
•  More information: icamiami.org​