Swimming Retrograde

From his Brooklyn studio, artist Angel Otero gives Tatler insight into his creative process revealing the fraught struggle in remembering

- Aaina Bhargava

One of Angel Otero’s first drawings was of Hello Kitty. At the age of six, the Puerto Rican artist saw his neighbour, a young girl, drawing a perfect copy of the cartoon character. He was fascinated by what he saw and wanted to try it for himself. “It wasn’t because I was into Hello Kitty or anything,” he’s quick to clarify. “I was just amazed that she was able to draw perfectly from memory, and I wanted to learn how to do it.”

Waves were one of the earliest standard motifs the artist was formally taught how to draw—he recalls being told to write the letter “C” and build from that, adapting the curved lines to make swelling bodies of water. “It’s these things I hold onto when I’m thinking about art—my early beginnings as an artist and my connection to my past.”

The ocean has long been an important part of Otero’s life—he grew up in Puerto Rico—and water and aquatic themes are ubiquitous throughout his work. Most recently, waves feature in new paintings the artist has made for The Sea Remembers, an exhibition currently on view in the Hauser & Wirth gallery in Hong Kong; the show ends July 29.

The artist spoke with Tatler at his Brooklyn studio three weeks ahead of the exhibition opening,