Tom Otterness Art

Art Brokerage: Tom Otterness (1952 - ) was born in Wichita, Kansas. He received his art education at the Art Students League and through the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum. Tom Otterness is an American sculptor whose works adorn parks in New York, most notably in Rockefeller Park in Battery Park City and in the 14th Street/8th Avenue subway station and other cities around the world. His style is very cartoonish and cheerful, and the forms of his sculptures often consist of many blobs and pipes, giving them a humorous look. These sculptures depict, among other things, huge pennies, pudgy characters in business suits with moneybag heads, helmeted workers holding giant tools, and crocodiles crawling out from under sewer covers. The main theme of Otterness' work seems to be the struggle of the little man against the Capitalist machine in a difficult and strange city. His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries in the United States and Europe. In addition to an installation at the Federal Center, Otterness has been commissioned by the GSA to execute works for federal courthouses in Minneapolis, Portland, Oregon and Sacramento. He has also received commissions from private sources for public art installations. Among these, The Real World was executed for Hudson River Park in New York, contemporaneously with The New World.