Installation view of Angel Otero: Everything and Nothing at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, 2016. Photo by Tom Dubrock.
Angel Otero: Everything and Nothing
About
Angel Otero: Everything and Nothing is Otero’s first survey exhibition and encompasses nearly a decade of his painting and sculpture.
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Otero has pushed against the art historical narrative with seductive canvases and dynamic objects made with porcelain and steel. The artist consistently tests the elasticity of venerable art canons while oscillating between familial memories and the immense gesture of painting and sculpture. Mining the expansive territory of these artistic traditions, Otero offers a trove of ideas that have informed not only the content of his work but also its material composition and processes. Angel Otero: Everything and Nothing chronicles the evolution of Otero’s practice to date and features four distinct bodies of work created between 2006 and 2015, including his iconic skin and transfer paintings, early work created using silicon and collage, as well as sculpture.
In Everything and Nothing all aspects of the artist’s practice are on view. The exhibition brings together work created nearly over a decade, allowing viewers to consider the overt themes, as well as more subtle underpinnings, of the artist’s oeuvre. The artist’s work and intentions are pronounced and demystified, and what initially appear as disparate lines of production and conceptual engagement suddenly coalesce into a continuous extrapolation of imagery that is at once intimate and iconic. Oterodigs deep into the corporeal, cultural, and intellectual repositories that have shaped him as an artist; Otero’s use of these repositories allows the artist to cast wide the vast net of art history in an effort to assert his own place along its tangled and complex narrative. This struggle has sustained his creative endeavors over the past decade and promises to propel him well into the future.
Organizers
Angel Otero: Everything and Nothing is organized by Valerie Cassel Oliver, CAMH Senior Curator.
Sponsors
Angel Otero: Everything and Nothing is generously supported by Jill and Jay Bernstein, Jereann and Holland Chaney, Hilda and Greg Curran, Marilyn and Larry Fields, Louise Jamail, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Lehmann Maupin, Bernard I. Lumpkin and Carmine D. Boccuzzi, John and Amy Phelan, and Robin and Andrew Schirrmeister. The exhibition is also made possible in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
This exhibition is made possible by the patrons, benefactors, and donors to the Museum’s Friends of Steel Exhibitions:
Director’s Circle – Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen, Fayez Sarofim, and Ms. Louisa Stude Sarofim. Curator’s Circle – Dillon Kyle Architecture, Inc., Mr. and Mrs. I.H. Kempner III, and Robin and Andrew Schirrmeister. Major Exhibition Circle – A Fare Extraordinaire, Bergner and Johnson Design, Jereann Chaney, Marita and J.B. Fairbanks, Barbara and Michael Gamson, Blakely and Trey Griggs, George and Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation, Leslie and Mark Hull, Jackson and Company, KPMG, LLP, Beverly and Howard Robinson, and Michael Zilkha.
The catalogue accompanying the exhibition is made possible by a grant from The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston.
Funding for the Museum’s operations is made possible by generous grants from Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen, Jereann Chaney, Marita and J.B. Fairbanks, Jo and Jim Furr, Barbara and Michael Gamson, Brenda and William Goldberg, Leticia Loya, Fayez Sarofim, Robin and Andrew Schirrmeister, and Marion and David Young. The Museum receives partial operating support from The Brown Foundation Inc. of Houston, the Houston Endowment, the City of Houston through the Houston Museum District Association, the Texas Commission on the Arts, The WorthamFoundation, Inc., and Art Market Productions.
CAMH also thanks its artist benefactors for their support, including Chris Beckman, Michael Bise, Bruce High Quality Foundation, Mel Chin, Jules de Balincourt, Julia Dault, Trenton Doyle Hancock, James Drake, Keltie Ferris, Mark Flood, Barnaby Furnas, Theaster Gates, Jeffrey Gibson, Camille Henrot, Jim Hodges, Joan Jonas, Jennie C. Jones, Maya Lin, Julian Lorber, Robert Mangold, Beatriz Milhazes, Melissa Miller, Marilyn Minter, Nic Nicosia,Angel Otero, McKay Otto, Joyce Pensato, Enoc Perez, Gavin Perry, Rob Pruitt, Matthew Richie, Dario Robleto, Ed Ruscha, Jacolby Satterwhite, Cindy Sherman, Shinique Smith, Al Souza, John Sparagana, James Surls, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Carrie Mae Weems, William Wegman, Haegue Yang, and Brenna Youngblood.
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