For his first Hong Kong gallery exhibition, Puerto Rican artist Angel Otero will present Born in the Echoes, a group of new paintings that bring his unique visual language to the forefront. Otero is dedicated to continuing the tradition of abstraction, and is an innovator in the genre. His richly textured abstract paintings engage in a dialogue with art historical themes while grappling with the artist’s own history and sense of self. 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.