Angel Otero

Influenced by Abstract Expressionists including Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Joan Mitchell, Angel Otero developed a distinct abstract practice that explore themes of memory, history and personal experience. Born in 1981 in Santurce, Puerto Rico, Otero moved to the United States in 2004 to study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He currently splits his time between New York and Puerto Rico.

Otero’s unique process in creating his signature ‘oil skin’ works involves overlapping sheets of oil paint that he peels off from a Plexiglas surface while the accrued pigment is half-dry and then reconfigures, drapes or collages onto canvas. This technique results in multi-layered, tactile surfaces that evoke the notions of personal, biographical memory, art history and transformation. By scraping, collaging and layering these paint skins, Otero creates a dynamic aesthetic grounded in individuality, gesture and expression.

A recurring theme in Otero’s work is the idea of memory, particularly as it relates to his personal history and cultural heritage. Experimenting with the materiality of paint, his works often reference domestic interiors, family photographs and art historical imagery, though these motifs are obscured and abstracted by his process. This allows his works to operate as both deeply personal and universally resonant, inviting viewers to project their own experiences and memories onto the canvas.

Otero’s work has been exhibited in prominent institutions and galleries worldwide and belongs in the collections of the Berezdivin Collection in Puerto Rico, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the DePaul Art Museum in Chicago and many more.

In 2022, Angel Otero’s Riders on the Storm (2019) sold at Christie’s London for £252,000, setting a new world auction record for the artist.