Comprehensive Surveys of Olga de Amaral and Mildred Thompson Debut Alongside Vibrant Solo Exhibitions of MIriam Schapiro and Sanaa Gateja at ICA Miami This Spring

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami’s (ICA Miami) spring 2025 season features major solo presentations for four pioneering artists. Opening in April and May, exhibitions include a major survey of more than 50 works by Colombian fiber artist Olga de Amaral, the most comprehensive solo museum presentation to date for abstract artist Mildred Thompson, a showcase of monumental paintings from the 1960s and 1970s by feminist artist Miriam Schapiro, and a presentation of intricate tapestries by Ugandan multidisciplinary artist Sanaa Gateja. The program reflects ICA Miami’s commitment to providing an institutional platform for movement-defining artists who interrogate salient sociopolitical and cultural themes through their work.

Miriam Schapiro: 1967-1972

April 17 – October 26, 2025

Featuring a selection of monumental paintings, the exhibition examines a crucial period of development in the work of the legendary feminist artist. The paintings on view highlight the evolution of Schapiro’s hard-edge geometric abstraction into her gendered, anthropomorphic “central core imagery,” laying the groundwork for her explorations of collage and craft within the Pattern and Decoration movement. While Schapiro grappled with typical themes of 1970s feminist art including interior spaces and domesticity, her visual language was simultaneously informed by the vast Southern California landscape and her pioneering work exploring early digital image production technologies. This work foreshadowed contemporary artists’ practices today working at the intersection of feminist digital art.

Miriam Schapiro: 1967–1972 is organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, and curated by Stephanie Seidel, Monica and Blake Grossman Curator, and Amanda Morgan, Assistant Curator, Exhibitions and Publications.

Miriam Schapiro, Docking #2, 1971, acrylic on canvas, 72 x 80 in © 2025 Estate of Miriam Schapiro / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Eric Firestone Gallery

Olga de Amaral

May 1 – October 12, 2025

ICA Miami, in collaboration with Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, presents a major retrospective of the work of Colombian artist Olga de Amaral, bringing together more than 50 works from six decades and featuring recent and historical examples, some of which have never been presented outside of her home country. This exhibition reveals the breadth and complexity of Amaral’s practice, highlighting crucial periods in the development of her career as she moved from colorful explorations of the grid to experiments with materiality and scale. Amaral’s sculptures and installations push the boundaries of fiber art, often combining weaving, knotting, and braiding to create striking abstract three- dimensional forms. Her earliest explorations, from the 1960s, frequently take inspiration from nature and feature unconventional weaving techniques. During the 1970s, Amaral created a group of monumental wall works; superimposing constructed layers of wool and horsehair enabled her to work at scale, evoking brick walls, leaves, and geological layers. Her investigations would also lead her to experiment with paint, cotton, gesso, gold leaf, and palladium.

The presentation at ICA Miami follows a successful debut in Paris at the Fondation Cartier. Both the Paris and Miami presentations are designed by French-Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh, the founder of international agency, Lina Ghotmeh – Architecture.

Olga de Amaral was originated by the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain with curator Marie Perennès and is co-presenting the exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami with Stephanie Seidel, Monica and Blake Grossman Curator, ICA Miami.

Olga de Amaral (b. 1932, Bogotá, Colombia). Bruma M, 2014, Linen, gesso, acrylic, Japanese paper, and wood. 205 x 90 x 190 cm. © Olga de Amaral. Photo © Diego Amaral

Mildred Thompson: Frequencies

May 10 – October 12, 2025

Marking the most comprehensive solo museum presentation of Mildred Thompson (b. 1936, Jacksonville, FL; d. 2003, Atlanta) to date, the ICA Miami exhibition features some 50 works spanning four decades, from the early 1960s to the late 1990s. This survey of Thompson's practice features paintings, sculptures, etchings, drawings, assemblages, and musical compositions by the artist, who worked across media and disciplines throughout her nomadic life and career. Dually informed by scientific research and her poetic pursuit of abstraction, Thompson explored the limits of perception. 

Mildred Thompson: Frequencies is curated by Stephanie Seidel, Monica and Blake Grossman Curator, ICA Miami.  

Mildred Thompson, Radiation Explorations 6, 1994 Oil on canvas Overall: 97 1⁄2 x 143 5⁄8 in(247.7x364.8cm) Panel 1 of 3: 973⁄8 x 47 7⁄8in (247.3 x 121.6 cm) Panel 2 of 3: 97 1⁄2 x 47 7⁄8 in (247.5 x 121.6 cm) Panel 3 of 3: 97 1⁄2 x 47 7⁄8 in (247.7 x 121.6 cm) © The Mildred Thompson Estate Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.

Sanaa Gateja: Language of We

Opening May 10

ICA Miami presents an exhibition of Ugandan artist Sanaa Gateja (b. 1950), featuring intricate tapestries that engage in complex pictorial dynamics and immersive scales. The artist’s distinctive method requires the involvement of members of his community, whom he has trained and employed since the early 1990s. Gateja and his studio community recycle used papers, dye them through natural and synthetic processes, and roll them into beads. Following his sketches, the artist then affixes them to barkcloth, which has traditionally been used in Africa as textile. Moving between pictorial genres, from figuration and still-life to abstraction, Gateja’s tapestries are deeply arresting, drawing on the deep connection that communities share with their environment and cultural lineages.

Sanaa Gateja: Language of We is curated by Gean Moreno, Director, Art + Research Center at ICA Miami and Amanda Morgan, Associate Curator.

Sanaa Gateja, "Stump Anew," 2023. Paper beads on barkcloth. 93 ½  x 72 ½ in.; 237.49 x 184.15 cm. Courtesy the artist and Karma

To learn more visit icamiami.org.

By ML Staff