In Residence: Angel Otero

Hauser & Wirth Somerset is delighted to welcome Angel Otero as our artist-in-residence in March ahead of his UK debut exhibition in May 2026. Moving his studio practice from New York NY and Puerto Rico temporarily to Somerset, the residency offers a unique opportunity to observe Otero’s ongoing exploration of memory, place, and meaning in the context of a new environment. The exhibition will feature a deeply personal body of work, completed during the residency.

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. He 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.

Otero was born in 1981 in Santurce, Puerto Rico, where he resided until moving to Chicago IL in 2004. He currently splits his time between New York NY and Puerto Rico.

Major solo exhibitions include: ‘Angel Otero. That First Rain in May,’ Hauser & Wirth West Hollywood, 2024; ‘Angel Otero: The Ocean in My Room,’ Vito Schnabel Gallery, St. Moritz, Switzerland, 2023; ‘Angel Otero. The Sea Remembers,’ Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong, 2023; ‘Angel Otero. Swimming Where Time Was,’ Hauser & Wirth New York, 22nd Street, 2022; ‘Angel Otero: Elegies,’ Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York NY, 2017; and ‘Angel Otero: Everything and Nothing,’ Contemporary Art Museum Houston, Houston TX, 2016.

Otero’s work is in numerous public and private collections including: The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx NY; DePaul Art Museum, Chicago IL; Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City MO; Long Museum, Shanghai, China; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago IL; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh NC; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York NY; Speed Art Museum, Louisville KY; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond VA; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY.