Tom Otterness

Tom Otterness
Born1952 (1952)
Wichita, Kansas
NationalityAmerican
Known forSculpture, Prints and Drawing
MovementColab
Websitetomotterness.net

Tom Otterness (born 1952) is an American sculptor who is one of America's most prolific public artists.[1] Otterness's works adorn parks, plazas, subway stations, libraries, courthouses and museums around the world, notably in New York City's Rockefeller Park in Battery Park City[2] and Life Underground in the 14th Street – Eighth Avenue New York Subway station. He contributed a balloon (a giant upside-down Humpty Dumpty) to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.[3][4] In 1994 he was elected as a member of the National Academy Museum.[5]

His style is often described as cartoonish and cheerful, but also political.[6] His sculptures allude to sex, class, money and race.[4] These sculptures depict, among other things, huge pennies, pudgy characters in business suits with moneybag heads, helmeted workers holding giant tools, and an alligator crawling out from under a sewer cover. His aesthetic can be seen as a riff on capitalist realism.[7]

Known primarily as a public artist, Otterness has exhibited across the United States and internationally, including New York City, Indianapolis, Beverly Hills, The Hague, Munich, Paris, Valencia and Venice. His studio is located in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Otterness controversially shot a dog for a short film titled Shot Dog Film in 1978.

  1. ^ Carducci, Vince (April 2005). "Tom Otterness: Public Art and the Civic Ideal in the Postmodern Age". Sculpture Magazine. International Sculpture Center. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
  2. ^ ""The Real World" Archived 2013-07-27 at the Wayback Machine" The Battery Park City Authority
  3. ^ Vogel, Carol. "Two Major Collections Land at Christie's" The New York Times, Friday, September 23, 2005
  4. ^ a b Sheets, Hilarie M., "Creeping Cats & Fish in Hats", Art News 105 (April 2006): 127-29
  5. ^ "National Academicians. Otterness, Tom, NA 1994". Archived from the original on 2014-03-20.
  6. ^ "The AI Interview: Tom Otterness," ArtInfo, October 2, 2006
  7. ^ Carducci, Vince. "Tom Otterness: Public Art and the Civic Ideal in the Postmodern Age", Sculpture 24 (April 2005): 28-33]