By deftly bringing together art, craft, and design in her fiber art work, Olga de Amaral has pushed the boundaries of conventional textiles. With a unique aesthetic vocabulary, technique, and innovative yet intricate manipulation of thin strips as warp and weft, the artist produces complex yet dynamic organic grids to reflect on aspects of the landscape and cultural geography of her native country. Her interest in structure, process, and movement is evident in Rios 2, part of the series Rios of 1990 which she first presented in the United States in the exhibition Nine Stelae and Other Landscapes. Inspired by the presence of rivers and rock formations on her farm in Colombia, Amaral evokes the rhythmic flowing of water by compressing and expanding linen and cotton strips forming small squares joined by threads in a pattern that simulates the crests and troughs in traveling waves. Using gesso and thin acrylic paint in transparent yet rich tones of blue and red to add depth and enrich the textile space, she generates a sensory experience by playing with variations in the surface and luminosity. Her representation of the fluidity of water underscores the relationship of space and fiber art and the balance between color, surface, and architectural surroundings where the artwork is hung. Exhibited at AMA in 1997, Rios 2 entered the permanent collection two years later as a gift from Mr. and Mrs. Robert Kornstein, Amaral’s gallerists in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
One of the most prolific fiber artists of the Americas, Olga Ceballos Vélez de Amaral’s artistic production has explored centuries-old natural fiber weaving techniques to reflect on a rich local peasant and indigenous tradition of basketry and textile craft and a rich pre-Columbian and Spanish baroque colonial cultural past. Born in Bogotá, Amaral studied architectural design at Colegio Mayor de Cundinamarca prior to attending Cranbrook Academy of Art in the United States in 1954-1955. Majoring in weaving and textiles design, she studied under Finish-American designer Marianne Strengell who encouraged her to experiment with native materials—which she eventually incorporated in her artworks, such as raw wool, wood branches, luffa, horsehair, and plastic—and to explore scale and the relationship of tapestries with architectural settings. Upon her return to Colombia, she founded the workshop Studio-Telas Amaral. Ten years later she established the Textile Department at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá. Emerging in the international art scene in the late 1960s, Amaral fast became a recognized fiber artist. She was Colombia’s representative to the World Crafts Council. In 1973 she was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship which allowed her to work in Paris. She represented Colombia at the 42nd Venice Biennial in 1986. With a record of exhibitions in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Oceania, Amaral’s large-scale work is also found in corporate collections around the world. For these larger projects, she employs a team of weavers who help her translate her artistic vision.
