Angel Otero’s first exhibition in Asia shines at Hauser & Wirth, taking you on a journey of exploration into memories through captivating oceans and everyday objects!

Born in Puerto Rico, Angel Otero is known for his unique visual storytelling, intertwining magical realism with abstract expression, observation with imagination, and the past with the present. Recently, Hauser & Wirth in Hong Kong will present his first exhibition in Asia, “The Sea Remembers”. Otero’s works explore the concept of “memory” through labor-intensive techniques such as layering, peeling, and collaging oil paints, starting from abstract images and drawing from art history and his own life experiences.

The exhibition presents 9 new paintings, displayed in two levels of the gallery space. These large canvas works combine Otero’s innovative techniques of figuration and abstraction, representing the artist’s further exploration of oil painting as both a creative medium and a channel for self-reflection and analysis. Otero draws inspiration from his upbringing in Puerto Rico and recent memories, influenced by art masters like Willem de Kooning, creating a captivating and peculiar visual realm that brings everyday objects to life through the lens of memory.

The exhibition title is taken from the artwork “The Sea Remembers” (2023). In the artwork, an upright piano from the Autro Studio (formerly a church in upstate New York) is engulfed by the tide against a deep red wave background. Surrounding the piano are cabinets, telephones, wave and sailboat paintings, and other objects. The submerged floor, visible through the water, is covered in Puerto Rican tiles, inspired by traditional Spanish tile patterns. These tiles are commonly found in Puerto Rican households, symbolizing the artist’s personal memories and the collective memory of Puerto Rican colonial history.

Otto often contemplates the theme of the ocean – it is breathtakingly beautiful. This solo exhibition showcases Otto’s new collection for the first time, further exploring the theme of “water” and creating turbulent waves, such as “Breakwater” (2023) and “The Voyage” (2023). The artist establishes a connection between his upbringing in Puerto Rico and the exhibition’s location in the city of Hong Kong – both are islands surrounded by the beautiful and powerful force of the ocean. These waves also represent the artist and the ever-changing nature of his memories.

Contrary to the typical painting process, Otero begins creating new works by first drawing the foreground scene on organic glass, and then gradually painting the background layer by layer – often inspired by historical abstract masterpieces. Afterwards, he secures the entire composition with a layer of fabric, scrapes it off, and fixes it onto the canvas. Finally, he continues to add images of objects such as pots, bowls, shutters, bingo game tickets, and folded paper fans on the surface of the painting, creating a completely new and multi-layered composition. In this way, the artist combines the process with intention, skillfully overlaying and blending fragments of imagery from different sources, reconstructing and building the present from our inaccurate or even distorted memories of the past.

During the period from 5 pm on June 1st, the artist himself will have an artist dialogue with Tan Hongjun, the Research Director of the Asian Art Documentation Center. Remember to seize the opportunity, audience!

Angel Otero “Sea of Memories”
Date: June 1 to July 29, 2023 (Closed on Sundays and Mondays)
Time: 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM
Location: 15-16/F, H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong, Hauser & Wirth

Image source and learn more: Hauser & Wirth