Angel Otero (b. 1981) is best known for his process-based paintings and deconstructive porcelain and steel sculpture. While early works have been influenced by memories based on his early life in his native Puerto Rico, referencing photographs and other family memorabilia combined with the gestures of 20th-century painting, his latest works highlight artistic material and its physicality.

Otero has developed a ‘deformation’ approach by first painting on glass and then, once dry, scraping the paint, as a skin, off the glass and draping and rearranging the material on canvas. With this process, Otero explores a reconfiguration of both historical and contemporary painting narratives, showcasing the physicality of the material beyond its historical use as an image-maker. The paint becomes the subject of the painting.

Otero received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.