The Nohra Haime Gallery Opens OLGA DE AMARAL Exhibition Today, 9/13

OLGA DE AMARAL: Places an exhibition of 23 three-dimensional surfaces, will open at the Nohra Haime Gallery tonight, September 13th from 6 to 8 p.m.

First exhibited in New York at the André Emmerich Gallery in 1973, Amaral's abstract "golden surfaces of light" are unlike anything else. Transcending any one specific media, her work plays a unique balancing act between fine art and fiber art. Filling a gap that is virtually untouched, she pulls inspiration from Pre-Colombian weaving and Colonial gilding, abstracting them to the extent of universality. Gold has become a formal part of her vocabulary and renders her work collectively recognizable.

Methodically assembled with a myriad of rectangular pre-fabricated pieces of fiber made into strips and rolls, the artist recreates the inner world of the universe. She choreographs these compositions with a labyrinth of winding, swirling and twisting interwoven patterns. Wind, light, mountains, trees, and rivers take heroic grandeur in her exploration of the universe.

Departing from the static world of the two dimensional surface, she conceives monochromatic environments of shimmering presence and seductive forms. She weaves, cuts, molds, marks and tints her materials, fusing and merging them to create a tension that redefines the natural order of things. Their content is only revealed upon close examination, and "just when we think we have it in our grasp, defined and categorized, it slips away, taking on another shape,"1 describes art historian, Twylene Moyer.

In Arboles, (Trees) 2012, Amaral uses gesso, acrylic and gold leaf with intricately assembled fragments of linen to achieve a rich and luminous effect. The panels' steady downward flows mingle and merge, calling to mind a group of close-knit trees, their branches and leaves intertwining in the light. "Where that illumination leads depends on the viewer," notes Moyer, "it may lead deep within the self, it may branch outward to a new way of looking at the surrounding world." 2

In Montaña 23, (Mountain 23) 2005, she adds parchment, an ancient material made from animal skin used for writing, thus investing the work with an added timeless element. Amaral manipulates this natural ingredient, working it into the linen, forming a cascade of abstract shapes that fall into an easy flow of horizontal lines, hinting at a distant mountain and the sparkling river at its feet.

In Nudo X, XII and XIII, (Knot 10, 12 and 13) 2011-12, three knots of numerous gold, blue and black threads descend freely from the ceiling into a majestic swirl on the ground. Overwhelmingly lyrical, they underscore the transformational qualities of thread, and its interaction with the environment.

In describing Amaral's works, writer and art historIan Edward Lucie-Smith indicates they "breathe an undoubted feeling of luxury. They are alluring in a purely sensual way...the undoubted sumptuousness... is often linked to an extraordinary feeling of otherworldliness." 3

Amaral successfully crosses the boundaries between painting, sculpture and textile. Her work is the antithesis of conventional, continually gathering inspiration and spanning the physical, cultural, economic and earthly aspects of our universe.

Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Olga de Amaral studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. During the 1960s, Amaral played an important role in transforming traditional two-dimensional textiles into sculptural works of art. In 1973 she was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship, and in 2005 she was selected as a Visionary Artist by the Museum of Art and Design in New York, an award that celebrates her commitment to the highest quality. They highlighted how Amaral "seamlessly integrates art, craft and design through engagement with both materials and process." She is represented in the collections of over 40 museums worldwide including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

DATES: Today, September 13 - October 31, 2012
OPENING FOR THE ARTIST: Tonight, September 13, 2012 from 6 - 8 p.m.