Tom Otterness

Known best for his public installations, sculptor Tom Otterness has served as an innovative New York City artist for over four decades. He attended The Art Students League of New York in the early 70s, taking advantage of studio offerings in drawing, painting, and sculpting. In 1973, Mr. Otterness attended the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He emerged as a recognized artist in the late 1970s through affiliation with Collaborative Projects, Inc. (a.k.a. Colab). Establishing a relationship with the Brooke Alexander Gallery in New York City, Tom Otterness saw his work presented in multiple international exhibitions, including the Nouvelle Biennale de Paris, the Whitney Biennial Exhibition, and La Biennale di Venezia. In 1992, "Battle of the Sexes" by Mr. Otterness was featured in the Museum of Modern Art's exhibition "Allegories of Modernism."

In the late 1980s, Tom Otterness began receiving public art commissions, which resulted in large-scale installations. In 1991, he oversaw the installation of The New World in front of the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in Los Angeles. This successful project led to other U.S. General Services Administration sculptural works at courthouses throughout the United States. Another early public work, The Real World at the north end of New York's Battery Park City, featured a whimsical narrative depicting animals and people playing out stories about the struggles of power, money and the system of predators and prey . Mr. Otterness has subsequently pursued numerous public art commissions in New York City, most famously Life Underground, which inhabits the subway station at 14th Street and Eighth Avenue. The sprawling 2004 installation, commissioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Arts for Transit, features more than 100 cast-bronze sculptures on subway-line platforms and stairways. Another notable installation in New York City, Playground at Silver Towers was unveiled in 2010 and featured a 30 foot tall playable sculpture in human form. The structure includes multiple slides running down the seated [is it seated or reclining?] figure's arms and legs that end at bulbous feet and hands. Tom Otterness has designed a number of other playgrounds and his website features postcards made by school children commenting on his art and a collaboration he worked on with the students of PS 20 and the American Ballet Theater.


Tom Otterness is currently represented by the Marlborough Gallery in New York City.

PUBLIC COMMISSIONS (Post 1984)

2010 Play Garden Park, Fulton, Mississippi
Wild Life, Connell, Washington
Untitled, Seoul, South Korea
Silver Tower Playground, 42nd St. between 11th and 12th Avenues, NYC
Another World, San Jose, California
2008 Social Invertebrates, Phoenix, Arizona
Untitled (Millipede), Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas
New Direction, Hunterdon Museum of Art, Clinton, New Jersey
2007 Coqui, PS 20, New York, NY
Immigrant Family, Toronto, Canada
Matriculated Nature, Claremont, California
DNA, University of Florida at Gainesville
2005 Large Frog and Bee, Montefiore Childrens Hospital, Bronx, New York
Amorphophallus Titanum, New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York
2004 El Coqui Gigante de Las Cavernas del Rio Camuy, Camuy, Puerto Rico
Untitled, Museum Beelden aan Zee, Scheveningen, The Netherlands
Tornado of Ideas, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas
Life Underground, Metropolitan Transit Authority and Arts for Transit, 14th Street and 8th Avenue, New York, New York
2003 The Return of the Four-Leggeds, Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, Washington State Arts Commission, Spokane, WA
2002 Mortellito Memorial, Branchbrook Park Station, New Jersey Transit, Newark, New Jersey
2001 Suspended Mind, Carl Sagan Discovery Center, Montefiore Childrens Hospital, Bronx, NY
2000 Time and Money, Hilton Hotel at Times Square, Forest City Ratner Corporation, NYC
1999 Rockman, Federal Courthouse, General Services Administration, Minneapolis, MN
Kohn Pedersen Fox (Architect), Martha Schwartz (Landscape Architect)

Feats of Strength, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA

The Music Lesson, Music School, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC
Calloway Johnson Moore & West (Architect)

Gold Rush, Federal Courthouse, General Services Administration, Sacramento, California, Nacht & Lewis/Hansen Lind Meyer (Architects)
1998 The Gates, Cleveland Public Library, in collaboration with Maya Lin (Artist) and Tan Lin (Poet) Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates (Architect)
1997 Visionary, Metro Tech Center, Brooklyn, NY
Law of Nature, The Mark O. Hatfield US Courthouse, General Services Administration, Portland, OR Kohn Pedersen Fox (Architect)
1996 The Marriage of Real Estate and Money, Roosevelt Island, NY
1995 Dreamers Awake, Wichita Art Museum, Kansas Untitled, Eli Broad Family Foundation, Santa Monica, California
1993 Upside-Down Feet, Krannert Museum of Art, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaigne Die �berfrau, State Library, M�nster, Germany, Bolles-Wilson (Architect)
1992 The Real World, The Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Park Battery Park City Authority, NY Carr Lynch Associates (Environmental Design)
1991 The New World, The Edward R. Roybal Federal Building, General Services Administration, Los Angeles Ellerbe Beckett Associates (Architect)

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