He is best known for his “The Ethics of Dust” ongoing series of artworks created by casting pollution and surface residues from monuments, which was exhibited at the 53rd Venice Biennale.
Jorge Otero-Pailos was born in Madrid, the only son of Justo Otero, a landscape painter and forestry engineer, and María Jesús Pailos, a computer scientist.
His early childhood was marked by international travel to historic sites, facilitated by Spain's transition from dictatorship to democracy, which made it easier for Spaniards to go abroad.
[5] He exhibited his paintings, collages and sculptures made of recycled materials in Puerto Rican galleries,[6] and wrote opinion pieces about architecture and urbanism in the press.
Notably, he collaborated with Oslo-based preservation architect Erik Langdalen on the restoration of the former U.S. Embassy in Oslo, originally designed by Eero Saarinen in 1959.
Their work involved developing a comprehensive preservation plan, restoring the original concrete facade, and guiding the project through the landmark commission review process.
Otero-Pailos explains how his father would bring him along as "he would set up easels at the Prado Museum, copying paintings by Goya" and how "Trips to the Parthenon in Greece and Teotihuacan in Mexico cultivated a lifelong interest in architecture and its connection to art."
The exhibition consisted of three large-scale steel sculptures crafted from sections of the fence that originally surrounded the former U.S. Embassy in Oslo, a landmark designed by architect Eero Saarinen.
"Treaties on De-Fences" was an exhibition by Jorge Otero-Pailos held at the National Museum of American Diplomacy (NMAD) in Washington, D.C., beginning June 4, 2024.
[19] The exhibition focused on the decommissioned U.S. Embassy in Oslo and featured sculptures made from its original steel fence as well as an artist's book of prints.
Regeneration examined themes of decay and renewal in historical and cultural contexts, with Otero-Pailos’s contributions tying processes of change, such as dust and rust accumulation, to the city of Rome itself.
"Watershed Moment" was a site-specific art installation by Jorge Otero-Pailos, commissioned to mark the opening of Lyndhurst Mansion's unrestored swimming pool building after extensive stabilization.
[21] The installation featured monumental cast-latex curtains suspended over the empty pool, accompanied by a soundscape of water recordings from various New York State locations.
It is the first time that Otero-Pailos not only uses his signature language of dust and liquid latex, but also introduces sound collages, and flips the verticality of the wall onto the horizontality of the floor.
[23] While conducting the reconstruction, examining the direction of the bullet's rotation, Otero-Pailos discovered that Edgerton had flipped the negative while printing his photograph, and that the iconic image is in fact backwards.