Tom Otterness (1952)
Tom Otterness
Tom Otterness is an American sculptor best known as one of America's most prolific public artists. 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 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. In 1994 he was elected as a member of the National Academy Museum.
His style is often described as cartoonish and cheerful, but also political. His sculptures allude to sex, class, money and race. 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.
| Date and place of birt: | 1952, Wichita, USA |
|---|---|
| Nationality: | USA |
| Period of activity: | XX, XXI century |
| Specialization: | Artist, Engraver, Graphic artist, Painter, Sculptor |
| Art school / group: | Art Students League, Art Students League of New York, Colab |
| Genre: | Genre art, Portrait sculpture |
| Technique: | Engraving, Hand graphic |
| Medium: | Bronze, Plaster |
