ART CITIES:Hong Kong -Angel Otero

Dedicated to continuing the tradition of abstraction, Angel Otero is an innovator in the genre. He begins with a reference to an object or image that holds personal or historical significance, and then abstracts the reference through his process-based approach, resulting in work that is visually autonomous from the original imagery.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Lehmann Maupin Gallery Archive

For his first solo exhibition in Hong Kong, Angel Otero presents a group of new paintings that bring his unique visual language to the forefront. Through innovative techniques and physically engaging processes, Otero continually experiments with materials, drawing much of his inspiration from the inherent qualities of paint. Otero begins each painting by reproducing reference images in thick oil paint on a large plate of glass. Once the paint is almost dry, the artist scrapes the “oil skin” from the glass surface, draping and collaging it onto large-scale canvases, obscuring the original painted imagery, and resulting in a wholly new composition. Through years of carefully observing the interactions of the material, the artist has forged an individualistic style, while expanding the traditional genre of abstract painting. The new oil skin paintings presented in this exhibition mark an expansion of focus for Otero. The artist references mediums beyond painting, mainly woodcutting and etching, and implements some of these printmaking techniques in his practice. Beginning with a layer of paint on glass, Otero marks his line work into the paint by erasing with a cloth, and the negative space ultimately reveals the images. The painting is transformed through the process of its transfer to the canvas; some images are revealed more clearly while others are distorted entirely. Otero’s artistic references, mainly abstract and Expressionist artists of the 20th Century, are ultimately accumulated into one coherent gestural abstraction.

Info: Lehmann Maupin Gallery, 407 Pedder Building, 12 Pedder Street, Central, Hong Kong, Duration: 26/5-2/7/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 10:00-19:00, Sat 11:00-19:00, www.lehmannmaupin.com