Toilet paper, bedposts, chairs, birds, house plants, dominos: the more you consume of Angel Otero’s work, the more there is to unearth.
Over the past decade, the New York-based Puerto Rican artist has concocted his own, distinctive take on abstraction, one which fuses the personal with art historical, and invites the viewer to dive in.
In his forthcoming show at Lehmann Maupin New York, Otero is turning his attention to the home in a series of abstract paintings imprinted with domesticity and childhood memory.
Angel Otero in his studio, 2020.
The artist is perhaps best known for his innovative paint ‘skin’ invention, whereby he layers his image composites atop plexiglass, peels the drying paint off in one sheet, and drapes the oil-paint membrane onto a canvas. In ‘The Fortune of Having Been There’, Otero paints directly onto his skins and puts his distinctive spin on the more familiar route of paint to blank canvas.
In these new paintings, collaged in construction, and wildly gestural in execution, domestic objects appear to levitate in a melodrama of frenzied hues. Carrying the depth and acuity of a true materialist, Otero’s paintings invite as much scrutiny of medium as subject. Jarring and fantastical, they reflect the imprecision and distortion of memory, while anchoring the paintings in a specific time and place. For Otero, that place is his grandmother’s house in Puerto Rico, depicted through fragmented domestic objects that have become repositories of the artist’s personal history.
Above: Angel Otero, Lucky Mirror, 2020. Below: Lucky Mirror, 2020 (detail).
Beyond introspective, Otero’s paintings are odes to his Abstract Expressionist predecessors, and they all feel within reach: the dynamism of Willem de Kooning, the lashings of Jackson Pollock and the electric shards of Joan Mitchell.
Though these memory-infused chronicles may live in the past, Otero’s paintings hold contemporary significance in an age when the intimacy and fundamentals of domestic space feel increasingly close to home.
Angel Otero, Untitled, 2020.
Angel Otero, Untitled, 2020.
INFORMATION
Angel Otero, 'The Fortune of Having Been There', 28 January - March 27, 2021, Lehmann Maupin, New York. lehmannmaupin.com
ADDRESS
501 W 24th St
New York, NY 10011
-
In Shanghai, Hermès conjures a ‘cosmopolitan explorer’ for its one-off show on the Huangpu RiverNadège Vanhée, artistic director of Hermès’ womenswear collections, presented ‘The Second Chapter’ of her A/W 2025 collection earlier this evening (13 June 2025) against the futuristic skyline of Shanghai
-
Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekIt was a jam-packed week for the Wallpaper* staff, entailing furniture, tech and music launches and lots of good food – from afternoon tea to omakase
-
Peugeot brings back a classic performance badge for the electric era: meet the E-208 GTiPeugeot has unveiled the new E-208 GTi, a performance EV designed to hark back to a golden age of compact sports cars
-
Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the week
It was a jam-packed week for the Wallpaper* staff, entailing furniture, tech and music launches and lots of good food – from afternoon tea to omakase
-
Kaari Upson’s unsettling, grotesque and seductive world in DenmarkThe Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark is staging the first comprehensive survey of late artist Kaari Upson’s work
-
Inside the brilliant and short career of Paul Thek: 'The goal was to live a creative existence as a maker – and he lived in a saint-like fashion'Paul Thek's paintings are now viewable at Thomas Dane Gallery in London, in an exhibition curated by Kenny Schacter and Jonathan Anderson.
-
Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska’s new show at Kettle’s Yard will uncover the missing narratives in everyday life storiesThe artists and partners in life are collaborating on an immersive takeover of Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, in an exhibition that delves into a lost literary legacy
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been up to this weekThis week saw the Wallpaper* team jet-setting to Jordan and New York; those of us left in London had to make do with being transported via the power of music at rooftop bars, live sets and hologram performances
-
Photographer Geordie Wood takes a leap of faith with first film, DiversGeordie Wood delved into the world of professional diving in Fort Lauderdale for his first film
-
New book celebrates 100 years of New York City landmarks where LGBTQ+ history took placeMarc Zinaman’s ‘Queer Happened Here: 100 Years of NYC’s Landmark LGBTQ+ Places’ is a vital tribute to queer culture
-
A major Takashi Murakami exhibition sees the world in kaleidoscopic colourThe Cleveland Art Museum presents 'Takashi Murakami 'Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow', exploring outrage and escapist fantasy
