b. 1981, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Lives and works in New York

Angel Otero has said, ‘I’ve always been passionate about painting specifically. That’s what drives me—painting and all the drama that goes with it.’ His paintings and sculptures are layered with oil paint and the sheets that form when it dries, called oil paint skins. He covers his large-­scale canvases with these thick, folding sheets, creating densely textured compositions full of hills and crevices. For his sculptures, he mixes materials like metal and wood with household items and furniture, which he then encrusts with the skins. Otero’s works range from entirely abstract, to semi-­representative, incorporating ghostly figures, floral patterns, or evocative phrases.

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