ICA Miami Showcases Pioneering Female Artists This Spring

A comprehensive retrospective on Colombian-born Olga de Amaral’s work opens at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, on Thursday, May 1. Photo is an exhibition view at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, where the show just closed in March before it heads to Miami. (Photo by Marc Domage)

At the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, the future is female – at least as far as its upcoming season goes. The art museum in the Design District, which recently announced a major expansion, will stage exhibitions on two pioneering female artists starting in May.

First up on Thursday, May 1 is a comprehensive retrospective of Colombian-born Olga de Amaral’s work. The show is traveling to Miami from Paris, where it debuted at the prestigious Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain last fall, and will delve into six decades of work from the fiber and textile artist.

“Olga de Amaral is someone who really revolutionized weaving and textile art,” says curator Stephanie Seidel. “At first (she) made more fabrics and designs for architecture and interiors, but then developed an independent language of tapestries out of that.”

“Bruma D1,” 2018 Linen, gesso, acrylic, Japanese paper, and wood
220 × 90 × 200 cm. Olga de Amaral. Casa Amaral, Bogotá. (Photo courtesy of Lisson Gallery)

Though the show is meant to span de Amaral’s entire career, Seidel says the inclusion of two recent series of works is quite exciting. The Estelas (“stelae”), sculptures covered in gold leaf, are meant to evoke ancient Mesoamerican landmarks, while the Brumas (“mists”) are a sort of three-dimensional deconstruction of a traditional tapestry, suspending stings of colorful fabric from the ceiling and create patterns that shift depending on viewpoint. The show also includes important large-scale works, one of which has a local connection. Coraza en morados, from 1977, was commissioned by Miami’s Art in Public Places program and displayed in Miami International Airport.

“We’re excited to bring this show here in light of this connection, and obviously this influence of Latin America that is very present in a city like Miami,” says Seidel. “It’s exciting to showcase her work here. And there’s other loans from local collections included in the show that were not part of the Paris show.”

Olga de Amaral, Casa Amaral, Bogotá, Colombia, 2013. (Photo by Diego Amaral, courtesy of ICA, Miami)

De Amaral studied architecture in Bogotá before studying at the Cranbrook School in Michigan, where she absorbed influences from the Saarinen family and other modernists. This background allowed her to create fiber and textile art with a sculptural, three-dimensional presence. Her work gained her recognition in the art world; she became the first Latin American woman to show at the Lausanne Tapestry Biennial in 1967, and two years later was part of a major group show of textile artists at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The architectural theme is also present in the exhibition design, a “forest” inspired by the views from the ICA’s third floor galleries that also references de Amaral’s work. The design was headed up by Paris-based Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh, whose resume includes the famed Stone Garden residential tower in Beirut and, most recently, the Bahrain Pavilion at the Osaka Expo 2025.

“Núcleo 1,” 2015. Linen, gesso, acrylic, and Japanese paper, 130 × 180 cm. Olga de Amaral. Casa Amaral, Bogotá. (Photo by Diego Amaral/courtesy of ICA, Miami)

Another all-encompassing show opening on Saturday, May 10 is dedicated to the late Mildred Thompson, a pioneering yet underseen African-American artist who worked in a variety of mediums. A born-and-raised Floridian originally from Jacksonville, Thompson began her art studies at Howard University and from there embarked on a career full of exploration. Her work explores a broad range of interests, everything from the microbiology of the human body to the infinite cosmos.

Mildred Thompson, “Radiation Explorations 6,” 1994. Oil on canvas Overall: 97 ½ x 143 ⅝ inches; three panels. The Mildred Thompson Estate. (Photo courtesy of Galerie Lelong & Co. )

“I think there’s just this incredible curiosity and understanding of these abstract phenomena,” says Seidel. “Some paintings, they could be like a super crazy microscopic view of an atom, and then others feel like you’re looking into the vastness of space. But to come up with a language to capture this is really kind of what connects all of it.”

That breadth of topics is also reflected in the range of mediums Thompson worked in. Much of the show will consist of paintings, from her Music of the Spheres series which celebrates the planets to the Wood Pictures made from salvaged materials that recall architectural facades. But the show also includes music by Thompson. An original electronic music composition called “Cosmos Calling,” which Seidel calls “a journey through the soundscape of space inspired by the NASA Voyager recordings,” will be played in the galleries.

Though the shows were not planned to be interlinked, Seidel believes visitors will find connections between the female artists.

Mildred Thompson, “Music of the Spheres: Mars,” 1996. Oil on wood. Overall: 96 x 144 inches; three panels. The Mildred Thompson Estate. (Photo courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.)

“I think there’s always interesting dialogues,” she says. “Olga and Mildred, they’re all roughly a similar generation, which I think is interesting because it shows extremely diverse approaches to making art, which is super exciting for me. So it’s rather like opening up, for lack of a better word, the kaleidoscope of all these options to explore and offering just a very broad view of what contemporary art can be.”

WHAT: “Olga de Amaral” and “Mildred Thompson: Frequencies”

 WHERE: Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, 61 NE 41st St., Miami

 WHEN: “Olga de Amaral” opens Thursday, May 1.  “Mildred Thompson: Frequencies” opens Saturday, May 10. Both through Sunday, Oct. 12.

 COST: Free

 INFORMATION: 305-901-5272; icamiami.org

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