Kavi Gupta Gallery
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Artists
  • Exhibitions
  • News
  • Viewing Room
  • Editions
  • Events & Art Fairs
  • Public Works
  • Podcast
  • Information
  • Mission
Menu

Angel Otero: The Sea Remembers : Hauser and Wirth Hong Kong

Past exhibition
1 June - 29 July 2023
  • Overview
  • Installation Views
Overview
Installation view, Angel Otero The Sea Remembersat Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong, 1 June–29 July 2023 © Angel Otero. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: South Ho.
Installation view, Angel Otero The Sea Remembersat Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong, 1 June–29 July 2023 © Angel Otero. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: South Ho.

‘The objects in my painting are from my childhood memories, but also represent things that are still present in my life, both physically and emotionally. They are a sort of trampoline to things way deeper, a stage to bring in memories, thoughts, questions, and open towards the unknown.’ — Angel Otero

Angel Otero is known for his signature approach to visual storytelling, synthesizing magical realism and abstraction, the observed and the imagined, and the past and the present. Beginning 1 June, Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong presents ‘The Sea Remembers,’ Otero’s first solo exhibition in Asia since he joined the gallery in 2022. Through a labor-intensive process of laying down, scrapping and collaging oil paint, Angel Otero’s works are rooted in abstract image making and engage with the idea of memory through addressing art history, as well as his own lived experience.

 
 

Consisting of 10 new paintings and spanning two floors of the gallery space, the exhibition includes vibrant large-scale canvases that merge the figurative and abstract sides of Otero’s innovative technical practice, advancing the artist’s exploration of oil paint as a medium and a conduit for self-reflection and analysis. Drawing from his childhood growing up in Puerto Rico as well as more recent memories, and influenced by the gestural mark-making of canonical artists like Willem de Kooning, Otero has invented a visual realm that evokes the enchanting and sometimes strange ways in which everyday objects become personified through the lens of memory.

 

The exhibition takes its title from the painting ‘The Sea Remembers’ (2023), where an upright piano from Otero’s studio, a former church in upstate New York, sits against an undulating crimson background and is engulfed by water. The instrument is surrounded by objects from his childhood home, like cabinets and a rotary phone, as well as drawings of waves and a sailboat. Below, the floor—visible through the water—is covered by decorative tiles that are a familiar sight in Puerto Rico, featuring patterns inspired by traditional sixteenth-century Spanish tiles. Found throughout homes in Puerto Rico, these tiles represent both the artist’s personal recollections and the collective memory of colonialism in Puerto Rico.

 
We deliver tailored solutions with PACE
  • Hauser and Wirth Hong Kong
Share
  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
Installation Views
  • Installation view, Angel Otero 'The Sea Remembers’at Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong, 1 June–29 July 2023 © Angel OteroCourtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: South Ho.
    Installation view, Angel Otero 'The Sea Remembers’at Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong, 1 June–29 July 2023 © Angel OteroCourtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: South Ho. 
  • A1 Hr Dsf0109
  • A1 Hr Dsf0113
  • A1 Hr Dsf0206
  • A1 Hr Dsf0121
  • A1 Hr Dsf0166
  • A1 Hr Dsf0238
  • A1 Hr Dsf0241

Related artist

  • Angel Otero

    Angel Otero

Back to exhibitions

Contact: +1  708-480-2882

General Inquiries: info@kavigupta.com

Media Inquiries: media@kavigupta.com

Client & Sales Inquiries: client@kavigupta.com

Publications: Kavi Gupta Editions

Facebook Twitter Instagram Newsletter

Kavi Gupta Washington Blvd

835 W. Washington Blvd. Chicago, IL 60607

Hours | Tue–Fri: 11 am–6 pm, Sat: 12 pm–5 pm

Kavi Gupta Elizabeth St

219 N. Elizabeth St. Chicago, IL 60607 
Hours | By appointment only

 

 

Kavi Gupta Warehouse

2108 S. California Ave. Chicago, IL 60608

Kavi Gupta New Buffalo

215 E. Buffalo St. #219 New Buffalo, MI 49117

Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Artsy, opens in a new tab.
Join the mailing list
View on Google Maps
Ocula, opens in a new tab.
Manage cookies
2025 Kavi Gupta
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences