'Olga de Amaral: Cuerpo textil' at Malba, Buenos Aires, Argentina

3 February 2026

From 27 February – 11 May 2026, Malba presents 'Olga de Amaral: Cuerpo textil'. This exhibition offers an ambitious survey of the practice of Colombian artist Olga de Amaral. Spanning from the 1960s to the early 2000s, it encompasses various stages of her artistic development. More than fifty works from both public and private collections in Bogotá, Medellín, and New York comprise this six-decade journey, offering visitors the opportunity to explore a body of work characterized by its visual delight and material experimentation.

Olga de Amaral's place within contemporary art renders any questions about the artistic status of textile art irrelevant. Her monumental works detach themselves from the wall and defy categorization: they are simultaneously paintings, sculptures, environments, and architectures. The ancient textile traditions of Andean communities and the vernacular dimension of materials (such as wool or horsehair) are inscribed in her work from a contemporary perspective that questions spatiality and the body. In this vein, her work transcends geographical boundaries and activates symbolic aspects that evoke the anthropological dimension of textiles in relation to the development of humanity.

The exhibition is accompanied by the publication of an extensive bilingual catalogue that, for the first time, makes available archival material related to Amaral's career and the circulation of her work both locally and internationally. The research seeks to present the artist's place within her contexts, documenting her artistic connections, her interventions in architecture, and her pioneering role in the Americas in relation to textile practice.

Find out more via Malba.

Image: Olga de Amaral, Alquimia XXVII, 1985, Linen, gesso, acrylic and gold leaf, 150 x 180 cm, 59 x 70 7/8 in © Olga de Amaral, Courtesy Lisson Gallery