In the Studio with Angel Otero

Angel Otero was born in 1981 in the seaside neighbourhood of Santurce in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and much of his work refers to a childhood by the ocean. In large paintings such as A Two Man Island (2026), objects recalled from memory – his grandmother’s furniture, stacks of plates from family meals – float amid crashing waves. These have a textural, collage-like quality because of Otero’s ‘oil skin’ technique, in which he applies oil paint to glass before peeling it away and transplanting these ‘skins’ on to canvas, and because of his use of scraps of fabric. Otero works in studios in Puerto Rico and New York and he has had solo exhibitions at institutions including the Bronx Museum of the Arts and Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. For his first solo exhibition in the UK the artist is presenting a new body of work at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, produced during a recent residency at the gallery. Titled ‘Agua Salada’ (‘Salt Water’), the exhibition is open until 18 October.