Blooming Leftovers

Born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, Angel Otero grew up in the town of Bayamón. His grandmother Abita raised him, and though the household was devoid of books and art, she nurtured his artistic talent. He went on to receive an undergraduate degree in 2004 at the Universidad de Puerto Rico. To make ends meet, he sold home insurance by day and made paintings at night. Impressed by his drive and talent, his teachers encouraged him to pursue art studies and helped him win a full scholarship to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. At age twenty-four, he moved to Chicago, where he would earn a BFA in 2007 and an MFA in 2009. Shortly thereafter, Otero was awarded the prestigious Leonore Annenberg Fellowship of $100,000 in New York. Thereafter he quickly rose to stardom; at twenty-seven, he sold every work at Spain’s International Contemporary Art Fair—all on the first day!

It was his experiments with technique that ultimately launched his success---all brought about by hardship that he transformed into opportunity. One day, as a typical struggling student, Otero had used every ounce of paint and needed more to complete an assignment. He recalled a professor encouraging him to push the limits, above and beyond his capabilities and mindset—in order to reach the next level of creativity. He began to scrape off the thin layers of left-over paint remaining on his palette and realized he could use these scraps, or skins of oil, as he named them, to invent a completely new mode of expression. His technique thus evolved. He applied oil skins, rather than traditional paint in tubes, onto smooth surfaces such as glass, and once nearly dry, would remove the skins and re-apply to construct previously unthinkable works such as Blooming Leftovers.

Otero’s painting straddles the boundary between sculpture and painting in its highly textured surface. Small mosaics of oil skins have been glued meticulously onto the gold background to form a still life of a table, checkered tablecloth, goblets, and a vase with withering flowers. These flowers—or blooming leftovers-- may reference childhood memories. The artist once remarked that his grandmother would ask him to tie back her dying plants with string onto sticks in order for the plants to look fresh and to avoid ridicule from the neighbors!

Sally Metzler, Ph.D.

Director of the Art Collection