Daniel Otero Torres

Daniel Otero Torres was born in 1985 in Bogotá, Colombia, and lives and works in Paris. He graduated from the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon and works across drawing, sculpture, installation, ceramics and painting. Drawing has remained a central thread throughout his multidisciplinary practice. Otero Torres’s work examines the construction and reconstruction of ideological narratives through meticulously executed drawings on aluminium and steel. Situated at the intersection of drawing and sculpture, his monumental cut-out structures can initially resemble large-format black-and-white photographs. On closer inspection, however, they reveal themselves as handmade drawings, painstakingly rendered in graphite on surfaces that possess the apparent lightness of paper but the physical density of metal. This distinctive technique produces a displacement of both materials and contexts. Rather than depicting individual subjects, his works often combine figures and fragments drawn from multiple visual and historical sources, including archival documents, books, newspapers and online images. Through these composite figures, Otero Torres examines histories of resistance and revolution, focusing on marginalised or overlooked communities that have nevertheless played significant roles in recent history. His practice also addresses migration, environmental crises and the effects of extractive capitalism on biodiversity and Indigenous peoples. His work has been exhibited at institutions including MACAAL, Marrakech (2020); El Espacio 23, Miami (2019); La Tôlerie, Clermont-Ferrand (2019); FLAX Foundation, Los Angeles (2019); and the Musée régional d’art contemporain Occitanie/Pyrénées-Méditerranée, Sérignan, which presented his solo exhibition (Dé)placements in 2017 and included his work in the group exhibition Bandes à part in 2018. Other presentations have taken place at the Institut d’art contemporain, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes (2016); Kunstverein Leipzig (2014); Heidelberger Kunstverein (2011); and Fondation Bullukian, Lyon (2010). In 2021, Drawing Lab Paris presented his solo exhibition Tierradentro. Otero Torres has participated in residency programmes at Villa Belleville, Paris (2015–2016); Moly-Sabata, Sablons (2014); the Cité internationale des arts, Paris (2011–2012); and L’Attrape-couleurs, Lyon. His distinctions include support from the Institut français through its Hors les murs programme, the Prix Rhône-Alpes de la Jeune Création at Rendez-vous 15 during the Biennale de Lyon, and the Prix de Paris in 2010.