Melude

Angel Otero

Throughout his process-based abstractions, Angel Otero explores his Puerto Rican lineage and the physicality of oil paint. In one of his best-known series, he first paints onto glass panes with a warm, vibrant palette. He then scrapes the drying “skin” from the glass and drapes it over a surface—canvas, tapestry, or the frame of a steel sculpture, for example—and shapes it into a layered, textural composition. To add another layer of meaning, Otero sometimes paints representational motifs, often inspired by items from his grandmother’s home in Puerto Rico, over the skins. The artist has worked off photographs, family memorabilia, and memories from his Puerto Rican upbringing. Art historical influences have included Pablo Picasso, Willem de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, and Georges Braque. Since earning his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009, Otero has exhibited at Pérez Art Museum Miami, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the SCAD Museum of Art, the Museum of the African Diaspora, and the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. His work has sold for six figures at auction.