Photo: Javier Romero
Angel Otero was born in 1981 in Santurce, Puerto Rico, where he resided until moving to Chicago in 2004. He currently splits his time between New York and Puerto Rico. In 2009, Otero was included in the exhibition ‘Constellations’ at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, shortly after receiving his MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Otero’s practice is known for employing highly innovative techniques that challenge the parameters of his materials, revealing the intrinsic qualities of paint. His works are rooted in abstract image making and engage with ideas of memory through addressing art history, as well as his own lived experience. Otero is best known for the Oil Skin works he began in 2010, an ongoing series that demonstrates the inherently transformative nature of the artist’s practice as well as his dedication to expanding the visual field of abstract expressionism. Using oil paint layered onto glass and peeled off at a partially dried state, Otero recomposes his ‘skins’ onto canvas to make entirely new images and patterns. This methodical process is extended to his Transfer Series (2013) which utilizes imagery from his own personal history. Referencing historical etchings, the artist traces images drawn from his family photographs into horizontal lines with silicone—he eventually transfers the composition onto a large piece of paper that becomes the plate he will cover in raw pigment. Otero then lays his canvas onto these mediums to create a distorted monotype of the original imagery.
His more recent works have continued to explore chance-based processes and their potential to convey memory and history through materiality. In 2017, Otero debuted a series of large-scale sculptural oil paintings that resemble tapestry. Hanging freely, these works incorporate salvaged materials from his studio, off-cuts of previous paintings, and found objects that are significant to his native Puerto Rico. The many fragments that make up his compositions become powerful meditations on past and present.
The artist’s early childhood memories are brought to the forefront in his most recent series of paintings which see a return to figuration combined with his hallmark style of abstraction. Otero paints and collages dreamlike scenes upon his vibrant structured canvases, depicting objects and spaces that are loosely based on personal memories associated with the domestic sphere. Probing the boundaries of figuration and abstraction, Otero’s most recent works continue to expand the possibilities of painting and materiality.
Otero’s work is in numerous public and private collections including the Berezdivin Collection, Puerto Rico; Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx NY; DePaul Art Museum, Chicago IL; Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City MO; Margulies Collection, Miami FL; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park KS; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh NC; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York NY; Speed Art Museum, Louisville KY, UBS Art Collection, Chicago IL; and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond VA.
Angel Otero
Biography
Print BiographyMFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL, 2009
BFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL, 2007
Universidad de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, 2004
Solo Exhibitions
Lehmann Maupin, ‘Angel Otero: Present Memory’, online
Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, ‘Angel Otero: Murmurs’, Culver City CA
Lehmann Maupin, ‘Born In The Echoes’, Hong Kong
Kavi Gupta, ‘Lago’, Chicago IL
Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, ‘Pintura Ascendente’, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, ‘Anachronic’, Los Angeles CA
Walter Otero Contemporary Art, ‘Angel Otero, recent work’, San Juan, Puerto Rico
SCAD Museum of Art, ‘Material Discovery’, Savannah GA; SCAD Museum of Art, Hong Kong
Contemporary Art Museum, ‘New Works: Angel Otero’, Raleigh NC
Galerie Isa, Mumbai, India
Istanbul ’74, Istanbul, Turkey
Kavi Gupta, ‘The Dangerous Ability to Fascinate Other People’, Chicago IL
Union League Club of Chicago, ‘Angel Otero: Recent Paintings’, Chicago IL
Group Exhibitions
Hauser and Wirth, ‘Artists for New York’, New York NY
University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, ‘Life During Wartime: Art in the Age of Coronavirus’, online
Lehmann Maupin, ‘be/longing’, Hong Kong
Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, ‘Cut: Abstraction in the United States from the 1970s to the Present’, Miami FL
Elmhurst Art Museum, ‘With a Capital P: Selections by Six Painters’, Elmhurst IL
Museum of the African Diaspora, ‘Coffee, Rhum, Sugar & Gold: A Postcolonial Paradox’, San Francisco CA
Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, ‘Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago’, New York NY
Wexner Center for the Arts, ‘Inherent Structure’, Columbus OH
American Academy of Arts and Letters, ‘Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts’, New York NY
Makasiini Contemporary, ‘Art Goes Logomo’, Turku, Finland
Studio Museum in Harlem, ‘Surface Area’, New York NY
DePaul Art Museum, ‘Nexo / Nexus: Latin American Connections in the Midwest’, Chicago IL
BRIC, ‘Inherited’, New York NY
Galería Leyendecker, ‘The Fire Next Time’, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
Lehmann Maupin, ‘Future Seasons Past’, New York NY
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, ‘Piece by Piece: Building a Collection Selections from the Christy and William C. Gautreaux Collection’, Kansas City MO
Lehmann Maupin, ‘Horizon’, Hong Kong
PKM Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Galerie ISA, ‘Between Worlds’, Mumbai, India
Museum of Contemporary Art, ‘Unbound: Contemporary Art After Frida Kahlo’, Chicago IL
Paradise Row, ‘Mystic Fire’, London, UK
Contemporary Art Museum Houston, Houston TX
Pioneer Works, ‘Amor Fati’, New York NY
Dodge Gallery, ‘A Pinch of Saffron, Dash of Vermouth’, New York NY
The Hole, ‘Xtraction: A Survey of new approaches in abstraction’, New York NY
Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, ‘Transforming the Known: Works from the Bert Kreuk Collection’, The Hague, Netherlands
6th Prague Biennale, Prague, Czech Republic
Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, ‘On Painting’, Les Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
Contemporary Art Museum Houston, ‘Outside the Lines’, Houston TX
Palazzo Saluzzo Paesana, ‘The Sound of Painting’, Turin, Italy
Luce Gallery, ‘Surface in Volume’, Turin, Italy
Istanbul ‘74, Istanbul, Turkey
Queens Museum, ‘Queens International 2012: Three Points Make a Triangle’, New York NY
Oh Wow Gallery, Miami FL
El Museo del Barrio, ‘El Museo’s Biennial: The (S) Files’, New York NY
Kreëmart, ‘American Patrons of the Tate and W Magazine’, New York NY
Brand New Gallery, ‘NY: New Perspectives’, Milan, Italy
Soho House, New York NY
The Arts Club, London, UK
Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park KS
Lehmann Maupin, ‘Touched’, New York NY
Walter Otero Gallery, ‘Circa Art Fair’, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Kavi Gupta, ‘Variations on a Theme’, Chicago IL
Walter Otero Gallery, ‘Circa Art Fair’, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Normal Projects Gallery, ‘Fridge’, Chicago IL
University Museum at Southern Illinois University, ‘Latino Nation, USA,’ Carbondale IL
Art Chicago, ‘New Insight Exhibition’, Chicago IL
Bucket Rider Gallery, ‘Group Painting Exhibition’, Chicago IL
Contemporary Art Workshop, ‘Open and Closed’, Chicago IL
Galeria Prinardi at Hotel Normandie, ‘Tributo a Basquiat Puerto Rico’, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Commission Projects and Special Projects
2019, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, ‘Angel Otero: Diario’, Kansas City MO
2013, Locust Projects, ‘Commuter Rail Project,’ Miami FL
Residencies
2017, Vannucci Artist Residency, Umbria, Italy
2013, Anderson Ranch, Aspen, Colorado
Honors and Distinctions
First Place Award and Members Choice Award, Visual Arts Competition
Civic and Arts Foundation, Union League Club of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago, BFA Fellowship Award
Bibliography
Selected Publications
Artoni, Margherita, ‘The Sound of Painting: Theaster Gates, Rashid Johnson, Angel Otero, Tim Rollins and K.O.S.,’ Turin: Palazzo Saluzzo Paesana, 2012 (exh. cat.)
Selected Press
Pérez Rivera, Tatiana, 'Ángel Otero: el señor de los "skins". El artista boricua presenta una nueva exposición en la galería Hauser & Wirth en Nueva York', in: El Nuevo Día, 12 November 2022, pp. 24-25, ill.
Tauer, Kristen, 'Studio Visit With Angel Otero', in: Women's Wear Daily, 21 November 2022, p. 19, ill.
Pérez Rivera, Tatiana, 'Ángel Otero: el señor de los “skins”', on: elnuevodia.com, 11 November 2022, ill.
Newell-Hanson, Alice, ‘The 19th-Century Church One Artist Calls Home’, on: www.nytimes.com, 11 February 2021, ill.
Dafoe, Taylor, ‘Act First and Then Think: Artist Angel Otero on How to Turn Failure Into Fuel for Creativity’, on: news.artnet.com, 10 April 2019, ill.
Viveros-Fauné, Christian, 'After the Storm, Rebuild: Angel Otero’s Milagros’, on: magazine.artland.com, 2019, ill.
Public Collections
Berezdivin Collection, Puerto Rico
Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York NY
DePaul Art Museum, Chicago IL
Istanbul Modern, Istanbul Turkey
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO
Margulies Collection, Miami FL
Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh NC
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York NY
Speed Art Museum, Louisville KY
UBS Art Collection, Chicago IL
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond VA
Gallery Exhibitions
View allThe Sea Remembers
Swimming Where Time Was