Tom Otterness

Who is Tom Otterness?

Tom Otterness is an American sculptor best known as one of America’s most prolific public artists Otterness' works adorn parks, plazas, subway stations, libraries, courthouses and museums 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. He contributed a balloon 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

Known primarily as a public artist, Otterness has exhibited in exhibitions in locations 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 the Gowanus neighborhood in Brooklyn.