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Born and raised in Santiago, Chile, and trained in Textile Art at Escola Massana Art and Design Center in Barcelona, Tomás Olivos is an artist whose work sits at the intersection of heritage, discovery, and storytelling. His practice is rooted in the visual language of ancient Chilean tapestries yet evolves through modern illustration, publishing, and textile exploration.
For Roark’s Chile Capsule, Tomás translated the amancay del desierto — a desert flower with bright yellow-orange blooms — into a bold, wearable graphic. The piece embodies both the Chilean landscape and Roark’s ethos of travel and discovery: artifacts carried forward as stories on the road. Internationally recognized for his illustration work (El gran espíritu; selections at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and Iberoamérica Ilustra), Tomás continues to expand his artistic journey across residencies, exhibitions, and collaborations. We sat down with him to explore the threads that connect his art, travels, and culture.
"...Working from so far away, these projects connect me with Chile, and when I close my eyes, for a moment they transport me to that place."
This journey has been very enriching; it has helped me look at the territory I come from with new eyes. Through textile art, I have approached material (fibers, ropes, threads, dyes, clay) in a more intimate way, and through illustration, I seek to connect with the Latin American spirit from Barcelona, keeping close my family, friends, landscapes, and rituals that I love to embrace from afar.
Each piece I create is a journey; I never have much clarity about where I’m going to end up, but through the exploration of new shapes, lines, and colors, I arrive at different results that allow me to bring a certain versatility to my work. If it were always the same, it would be monotonous and boring, so I prefer to experiment and try different paths, letting the outcome surprise me and motivating me to keep going with what I’m doing.
Many of the commissions I work on are related to natural and cultural heritage, and they have allowed me to get to know Chile from Arica to Magallanes. I believe my work is simply a synthesis of everything that surrounds me, aiming to convey the elements in a simple way so that everyone can understand them.
Many of the illustrations are inspired by a tapestry I worked on at Escola Massana in Barcelona, conceived as an open book. It speaks about the earth, from the underworld to the moon and the stars. Little devils, guitars, birds, trees, rivers, and mountains appear. Like a cycle that, from beginning to end, starts over again and again. A narrative that can take you to different places, just like the garments one wears while traveling.
I believe each material speaks for itself in how it should be worked. I try to make all my projects move across different formats, taking on life and form in order to tell a story. They are all stories that transport you to a place.
It’s very special because it means my work has reached many people, and they’ve been able to travel through my illustrations. It’s an opportunity to dream of adventures, learn about the land, and see the world with new eyes.
Residencies have been very important in my journey as an artist; they are moments when you share, in an interdisciplinary way, different approaches to exploring the environment. You are nourished by the companions from each place, and they push you out of your comfort zone to experiment and play. I believe play is a beautiful way to try new things, to discover new languages, and to recognize that there are a million creative possibilities in every place.
I’ve been fortunate to travel to many places in Latin America, and what always catches my attention first is the landscape. I believe the land shapes the way people have to live, and that’s when a foundational part of our history appears: the nature-culture relationship. Nature is connected to traditions and ways of understanding the world. When there is awareness of this fundamental relationship, we are on the right path.
Working from so far away, these projects connect me with Chile, and when I close my eyes, for a moment they transport me to that place. It’s like traveling through my drawings and feeling a little closer to where I come from.
I hope that journeys keep showing up in the stories I want to tell. I hope readers get to enjoy the chance to travel to unimaginable places, to dream, and to feel more connected to the world.
From Santiago to Barcelona, from ancient tapestries to bold prints, Tomás Olivos reminds us that art itself is a form of travel — a way of carrying forward stories, places, and discoveries. With his contribution to Roark’s Chile Capsule, we’re invited to wear those stories and perhaps discover a little more of our own along the way.
