Angel Otero, a Puerto Rican artist based in Somerset, discusses his emotional collaboration with musician Bad Bunny on the stage set "La Casita" for his 31-show residency in Puerto Rico. Otero's new solo exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Somerset features large-scale, semi-abstract paintings that draw from his childhood memories in Santurce, San Juan, including motifs like a pink vanity cabinet, birdcages, and a turbulent sea. His signature technique involves applying paint skins—dried sheets of oil paint on Perspex—to canvas, creating layered, sculptural surfaces. The show includes a diptych based on a photograph of Otero and his grandmother, marking his most figurative work to date.
This exhibition matters because it marks a personal turning point for Otero, who has long used indirect motifs to represent his family and Puerto Rican culture but now confronts his background more directly. His collaboration with Bad Bunny, a global pop star, bridges high art and popular culture, validating the everyday aesthetics of the Latin American diaspora. Otero's innovative paint-skin technique, which collapses collage and sculpture into painting, continues to challenge traditional oil painting conventions, making his work significant in contemporary art discourse.