Angel Otero

On Being Blue

$225,000

2023
Oil paint and fabric collaged on canvas
182.8 x 243.8 x 3.8 cm / 72 x 96 x 1 ½ in

Highly textural in composition, ‘On Being Blue’ (2023) is an outstanding example of Angel Otero’s distinctive experimentations with the materiality and the possibilities of paint. Layers of textural blue and turquoise fade into vivid greens and reds, as etched lines traverse the canvas, revealing geometric forms beneath to form a resolutely abstract and rhythmic painting.

Otero’s captivating abstractions are rooted in personal experience and art historical reference. As curator Valerie Cassel Oliver observes: ‘[Otero’s] work oscillates between the instinctual frames of nostalgia and memory and the immense gesture of painting.’ [1] He harnesses early memories from his childhood as the springboard for his works, from objects and spaces in his grandmother’s home in Puerto Rico to canonical paintings he encountered in books. Speaking about the artists he references, Otero clarifies: ‘My plan is not to get at what each individual artist or work means to me; it’s a formal decision more than anything else. For me, it’s like the way I choose a paintbrush—it’s a kind of tool that I’m reactivating in my own language.’ [2] Accordingly, in his work, Otero does not reveal these sources directly; instead, he collapses and collages them to create something that is simultaneously a historical facsimile and an entirely new creation.

Otero’s nuanced and complex methods underscore the skill and aesthetic sensibility that defines his practice. To create ‘On Being Blue,’ Otero laid down representational imagery in oil paint on plexiglass—in this instance, he references works by Pablo Picasso and Willem de Kooning. He then covered his initial composition with thick, gestural layers of oil paint, building up the surface of the work. Otero describes this method as ‘painting in reverse.’ He explains: ‘First I paint the scene, then I cover it with the background.’ [3] While the paint was still wet, he scratched another referential work—a Picasso etching—into its surface. He then waited for the medium to partially dry and scraped its solidifying surface layers. The paint ‘skins’ Otero created during this process were reconstructed onto the canvas, yielding a complex and vibrant composition that demonstrates the physicality of oil paint in an idiosyncratic way.

Accordingly, ‘On Being Blue’ is a testament to Otero’s remarkable ingenuity and mastery of his medium. This highly exploratory and creative approach to painting positions the artist among the most innovative and important contemporary artists.

About the artist

Angel Otero was born in 1981 in Santurce, Puerto Rico. He moved to Chicago in 2004, where he received his MFA at the School of the Art Institute. Otero 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. Otero is well 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.

Learn more

1.) Verlie Cassel Oliver, Terry R. Myers, Christian Viveros-Fauné, ‘Angel Otero. Everything and Nothing,’ Houston TX: Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and Skira, 2017, p. 13.

2.) Angelo Otero quoted in Taylor Dafoe, ‘’Act First and Then Think:’ Artist Angel Otero on How to Turn Failure Into Fuel for Creativity,’ artnet news, April 19, 2019 (accessed April 28, 2022), https://news.artnet.com/art-world/angel-otero-turning-failure-into-creativity-1511446).

3.) Verlie Cassel Oliver, Terry R. Myers, Christian Viveros-Fauné, ‘Angel Otero. Everything and Nothing’, Houston TX: Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and Skira, 2017, p. 28.