Skip to main content

Tom Otterness Art

American, b. 1952
Tom Otterness was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1952. By 1970 he had arrived in New York to attend the Art Students League, followed by The Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Otterness redefines the tradition of cast bronze figurative sculpture by using whimsical cartoon-like figures to make critical commentaries on political and social issues. Not only do his sculptures vary in size from colossal to minute, they also address a wide range of emotions and experiences. Their placement in parks, subway stations, and other public areas around the country allow the works to be appreciated by people from all walks of life. Otterness’s combination of unforeseen subject matter and fanciful characters makes his work universally appealing. Otterness works mainly in bronze sculpture, but his ideas have been realized on paper in the form of drawings and etchings. The unique, simplified forms he creates to convey thought-provoking themes succeed in whichever medium Otterness employs. He currently lives and works in New York City. Otterness has received a number of public commissions across the United States and abroad, and he is represented in many public collections including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York; Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel; IVAM Center Julio Gonzalez, Valencia, Spain; Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico; Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York.
(Biography provided by Marlborough New York)
to
6
1
5
1
Overall Height
to
Overall Width
to
3
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
3
3
1
2
6
6,820
3,108
2,517
1,217
3
3
2
2
2
Artist: Tom Otterness
Lovers
By Tom Otterness
Located in Greenwich, CT
bronze with silver nitrate patina Executed in 1992; this example is one of ten artist's proofs aside from the numbered edition of 25, published by Artists Space. Tom Otterness was ...
Category

1990s Contemporary Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Bronze

Macy's Humpty Dumpty unique, signed Ceramic Plate by famed sculptor iconic image
By Tom Otterness
Located in New York, NY
Tom Otterness Macy's Humpty Dumpty Ceramic Plate, 2006 Glazed ceramic plate Signed and dated on the rim 'Tom Otterness 1/19/2006' 13 1/2 in diameter Unframed Signed and dated on the ...
Category

Early 2000s Pop Art Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Ceramic, Glaze, Mixed Media

Horse and Rider sculpture (with original red box)
By Tom Otterness
Located in New York, NY
Tom Otterness Horse and Rider Maquette, 2003 Black Resin Sculpture held in original box 5 1/2 × 3 1/2 × 2 inches Held in original vintage box This rare, highly collectible, limited e...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Resin, Mixed Media

Horse and Rider Sculpture Maquette
By Tom Otterness
Located in New York, NY
TOM OTTERNESS Horse and Rider Maquette, 2003 White Resin Sculpture held in original box 5 1/2 × 3 1/2 × 2 inches Signed Tom Otterness Incised signature on the feet (see photos) Limited Edition (exact number produced unknown) This 2004 Horse and Rider black resin maquette is a miniature of famed American public sculptor Tom Otterness's large bronze "Horse and Rider" sculpture located at Texas Tech University's Student Union Gathering Pavilion. Rarely found in the original vintage box - this is a collectors item! The original piece was commissioned by the Student Union to celebrate Texas Tech's famous mascot - "The Masked Rider". Otterness' version of the mascot depicts the Masked Rider atop of the horse, kicking its “feet triumphantly in the quest for truth,” as he describes. (The tradition of the Masked Rider started as a dare in 1936 when an unidentified masked or ghost rider would circle the football field during home games. The Masked Rider became an official Texas Tech mascot in 1954.) The artist made a limited series of white and black resin multiples back in 2003 as a result of numerous requests by students for affordable models of the Horse and Rider. They were only available for sale by the Texas Tech student union and sold out very quickly. Although there is no stated edition, it was a one-off offering, produced by the artist just for Texas Tech students, with no second editions ever made. Once they sold out - that was it. Now Otterness' "Horse & Rider" is a highly desirable vintage collectors item. Created in an unknown but very limited first edition only back in 2003. Horse and Rider is difficult to find, - so if you're an Otterness (or Texas Tech) fan, we recommend you snag this one! About Tom Otterness: Tom Otterness was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1952. He came to New York City in 1970 to study at the Arts Students League, and in 1973 took part in the Whitney Independent Study Program. In 1977 he became a member of Collaborative Projects, a pioneering community of independent artists, and took a leading role in organizing Colab’s 1980 Times Square Show, which was called “the first avant-garde art show of the ‘80s” by the Village Voice. Otterness is one of a handful of contemporary artists invited to design a balloon for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, for which he devised a tumbling Humpty-Dumpty in 2005. Otterness lives and works in New York. Otterness may well be “the world’s best public sculptor,” as the art critic Ken Johnson opined in the New York Times in 2002. Public art is his focus, and Otterness has had major outdoor exhibitions of his sculptures on the Park Avenue Mall in New York (2003), in more than a dozen sites in downtown Indianapolis (2005), on the grounds of the Beverly Hills city hall (2005-06) and throughout Grand Rapids, Michigan (2006). His first solo exhibition, held at Brooke Alexander Gallery in New York in 1983, featured elements of The New World (1991), a white plaster frieze of 250 nude “Ur-people,” as essayist Hayden Herrera called them, eventually destined for the plaza of the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in Los Angeles, a General Services Administration commission. In the U.S., Otterness has completed at least three dozen public commissions, including Life Underground (2004), his celebrated multi-figural bronze sculpture installation for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Agency at the 14th Street station on the Eighth Avenue subway lines. His international commissions include public plazas in Münster, Germany (1993), Toronto, Canada (2007), and Seoul, South Korea (2010), and a large public park in Scheveningen, the Netherlands (2004). In 2013, Creation Myth, a gateway park for the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, N.Y., was dedicated. Otterness has exhibited his work at John Berggruen Gallery in San Francisco, and other important contemporary art galleries. His most recent exhibition, Metal on Paper: Silverpoint, Copperpoint & Steelpoint Drawings, opened at Marlborough in September 2015. Works by Otterness are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Eli Broad Family Foundation, the Brooklyn Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Carnegie Museum, the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and others. He was elected a member of the National Academy in 1994. Most recently, Otterness has installed The Tables from the collection of the Whitney and 50 new sculptures in niches at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, as part of the group exhibition, The Value of Food. On a personal note, Otterness has practiced Tai Chi, martial arts, and boxing in the school of William C. C. Chen since the 1970s, and his studio features a boxing bag...
Category

Early 2000s Pop Art Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Resin, Mixed Media, Cardboard

Gold-Plated Earrings
By Tom Otterness
Located in New York, NY
Tom Otterness Gold-Plated Earrings, ca. 1995 Pair of gold-plated earrings Signed with incised signature TOM OTTERNESS on the verso of the circular penny shape. 1 3/4 × 1 1/4 × 1/4 inches Unframed An irrepressible and unforgettable gift. These anatomically correct, signed vintage gold plated earrings of figures dangling from a replica of a U.S. penny by public sculptor Tom Otterness are real collectors items. Although the edition is unnumbered, the artist has stated that approx 200 were created. The artist has also confirmed to us that these earrings were originally made as gifts to close personal friends and associates, so he did not sell them on the open market and did not make them again after the initial group. They are quite rare and desirable. In 2013, these works sold at Phillips auction house for US  $2,750. Wonderful, racy conversation pieces. Wearable art which would also look terrific framed hanging in a small shadow box. About Tom Otterness: Tom Otterness was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1952. He came to New York City in 1970 to study at the Arts Students League, and in 1973 took part in the Whitney Independent Study Program. In 1977 he became a member of Collaborative Projects, a pioneering community of independent artists, and took a leading role in organizing Colab’s 1980 Times Square Show, which was called “the first avant-garde art show of the ‘80s” by the Village Voice. Otterness is one of a handful of contemporary artists invited to design a balloon for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, for which he devised a tumbling Humpty-Dumpty in 2005. Otterness lives and works in New York. Otterness may well be “the world’s best public sculptor,” as the art critic Ken Johnson opined in the New York Times in 2002. Public art is his focus, and Otterness has had major outdoor exhibitions of his sculptures on the Park Avenue Mall in New York (2003), in more than a dozen sites in downtown Indianapolis (2005), on the grounds of the Beverly Hills city hall (2005-06) and throughout Grand Rapids, Michigan (2006). His first solo exhibition, held at Brooke Alexander Gallery in New York in 1983, featured elements of The New World (1991), a white plaster frieze of 250 nude “Ur-people,” as essayist Hayden Herrera called them, eventually destined for the plaza of the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in Los Angeles, a General Services Administration commission. In the U.S., Otterness has completed at least three dozen public commissions, including Life Underground (2004), his celebrated multi-figural bronze sculpture installation for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Agency at the 14th Street station on the Eighth Avenue subway lines. His international commissions include public plazas in Münster, Germany (1993), Toronto, Canada (2007), and Seoul, South Korea (2010), and a large public park in Scheveningen, the Netherlands (2004). In 2013, Creation Myth, a gateway park for the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, N.Y., was dedicated. Otterness has exhibited his work at John Berggruen Gallery in San Francisco, and other important contemporary art galleries. His most recent exhibition, Metal on Paper: Silverpoint, Copperpoint & Steelpoint Drawings, opened at Marlborough in September 2015. Works by Otterness are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Eli Broad Family Foundation, the Brooklyn Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Carnegie Museum, the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and others. He was elected a member of the National Academy in 1994. Most recently, Otterness has installed The Tables from the collection of the Whitney and 50 new sculptures in niches at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, as part of the group exhibition, The Value of Food. On a personal note, Otterness has practiced Tai Chi, martial arts, and boxing in the school of William C. C. Chen since the 1970s, and his studio features a boxing bag...
Category

1990s Contemporary Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Metal, Gold

Angry Father, family sculpture in bronze
By Tom Otterness
Located in Greenwich, CT
A lively and important work that would bring animation to any interior. Though he has been called “the world’s best public sculptor,” by art critic Ken Johnson, Tom Otterness’ playfu...
Category

1980s Realist Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Bronze

Related Items
Good eye Easter egg sculpture, Eye positioned across, home & office decor
Located in Tel Aviv, IL
Good eye ceramic egg sculpture for home, office decor, collector piece. handmade in the picturesque village Arsuf in Israel is an art piece for designers a...
Category

2010s Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Ceramic, Underglaze, Pigment

Large Money Cat from Huichol ALTERATIONS Series
By CHROMA aka Rick Wolfryd
Located in Cuauhtemoc, Ciudad de México
THE ARTIST IS ALWAYS OPEN FOR COMMISSIONS FOR YOU!!! ALTERATION ART . . . is a collaboration process between Rick Wolfryd, fine artist and art dealer with over 40 years experience, ...
Category

2010s Pop Art Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Glass, Resin, Mixed Media

Baby Y from Huichol ALTERATIONS Series
By CHROMA aka Rick Wolfryd
Located in Cuauhtemoc, Ciudad de México
ALTERATION ART . . . is a collaboration process between Rick Wolfryd, fine artist and art dealer with over 40 years experience, and various Mexican Huichol artists and Mexican Huicho...
Category

2010s Pop Art Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Glass, Resin, Mixed Media

Large Money Cat from Huichol ALTERATIONS Series
By CHROMA aka Rick Wolfryd
Located in Cuauhtemoc, Ciudad de México
THE ARTIST IS ALWAYS OPEN FOR COMMISSIONS FOR YOU!!! ALTERATION ART . . . is a collaboration process between Rick Wolfryd, fine artist and art dealer with over 40 years experience, ...
Category

2010s Pop Art Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Glass, Resin, Mixed Media

"Reaching Out I" from Magic Hands Huichol ALTERATIONS Series
By CHROMA aka Rick Wolfryd
Located in Cuauhtemoc, Ciudad de México
OPEN FOR COMMISSIONS!!! ALTERATION ART . . . is a collaboration process between Rick Wolfryd, fine artist and art dealer with over 40 years experience, and various Mexican Huichol a...
Category

2010s Pop Art Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Glass, Resin, Mixed Media

Large Money Cat from Huichol ALTERATIONS Series
By CHROMA aka Rick Wolfryd
Located in Cuauhtemoc, Ciudad de México
THE ARTIST IS ALWAYS OPEN FOR COMMISSIONS FOR YOU!!! ALTERATION ART . . . is a collaboration process between Rick Wolfryd, fine artist and art dealer with over 40 years experience, ...
Category

2010s Pop Art Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Glass, Resin, Mixed Media

Money Cat from Huichol ALTERATIONS Series
By CHROMA aka Rick Wolfryd
Located in Cuauhtemoc, Ciudad de México
ALTERATION ART . . . is a collaboration process between Rick Wolfryd, fine artist and art dealer with over 40 years experience, and various Mexican Huichol artists and Mexican Huicho...
Category

2010s Pop Art Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Glass, Resin, Mixed Media

"At Last, " Sculpture
By Bill Starke
Located in Denver, CO
Bill Starke's "At Last" is a limited edition, bronze sculpture created by Bill Starke depicting a male figure with out-stretched arms. ( 3/85 ) About the artist: Human beings int...
Category

2010s Realist Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Marble, Bronze

"Reaching Out II" from Magic Hands Huichol ALTERATIONS Series
By CHROMA aka Rick Wolfryd
Located in Cuauhtemoc, Ciudad de México
OPEN FOR COMMISSIONS!!! ALTERATION ART . . . is a collaboration process between Rick Wolfryd, fine artist and art dealer with over 40 years experience, and various Mexican Huichol a...
Category

2010s Pop Art Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Glass, Resin, Mixed Media

Large Money Cat from Huichol ALTERATIONS Series
By CHROMA aka Rick Wolfryd
Located in Cuauhtemoc, Ciudad de México
THE ARTIST IS ALWAYS OPEN FOR COMMISSIONS FOR YOU!!! ALTERATION ART . . . is a collaboration process between Rick Wolfryd, fine artist and art dealer with over 40 years experience, ...
Category

2010s Pop Art Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Glass, Resin, Mixed Media

"Return on Your Money" from Huichol Series
By CHROMA aka Rick Wolfryd
Located in Cuauhtemoc, Ciudad de México
ALTERATION ART . . . is a collaboration process between Rick Wolfryd, fine artist and art dealer with over 40 years experience, and various Mexican Huichol artists and Mexican Huicho...
Category

2010s Pop Art Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Glass, Resin, Mixed Media

"The Pointer" from Huichol ALTERATIONS Series
By CHROMA aka Rick Wolfryd
Located in Cuauhtemoc, Ciudad de México
ALTERATION ART . . . is a collaboration process between Rick Wolfryd, fine artist and art dealer with over 40 years experience, and various Mexican Huichol artists and Mexican Huicho...
Category

2010s Pop Art Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Glass, Resin, Mixed Media

Previously Available Items
Small Sunflower
By Tom Otterness
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Small Sunflower" is a sculpture by Tom Otterness. The sculpture is edition 3 of 6. Tom Otterness was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1952. He came to New York City in 1970 to study at the Arts Students League, and in 1973 took part in the Whitney Independent Study Program. In 1977 he became a member of Collaborative Projects, a pioneering community of independent artists, and took a leading role in organizing Colab’s 1980 Times Square Show, which was called “the first avant-garde art show of the ‘80s” by the Village Voice. Otterness is one of a handful of contemporary artists invited to design a balloon for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, for which he devised a tumbling Humpty-Dumpty in 2005. Otterness lives and works in New York. Otterness may well be “the world’s best public sculptor,” as the art critic Ken Johnson opined in the New York Times in 2002. Public art is his focus, and Otterness has had major outdoor exhibitions of his sculptures on the Park Avenue Mall in New York (2003), in more than a dozen sites in downtown Indianapolis (2005), on the grounds of the Beverly Hills city hall (2005-06) and throughout Grand Rapids, Michigan (2006). His first solo exhibition, held at Brooke Alexander Gallery in New York in 1983, featured elements of The New World (1991), a white plaster frieze of 250 nude “Ur-people,” as essayist Hayden Herrera called them, eventually destined for the plaza of the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in Los Angeles, a General Services Administration commission. In the U.S., Otterness has completed at least three dozen public commissions, including Life Underground (2004), his celebrated multi-figural bronze sculpture installation for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Agency at the 14th Street station on the Eighth Avenue subway lines. His international commissions include public plazas in Münster, Germany (1993), Toronto, Canada (2007), and Seoul, South Korea (2010), and a large public park in Scheveningen, the Netherlands (2004). In 2013, Creation Myth, a gateway park for the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, N.Y., was dedicated. Works by Otterness are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Eli Broad Family Foundation, the Brooklyn Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Carnegie Museum, the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and others. He was elected a member of the National Academy in 1994. Most recently, Otterness has installed The Tables from the collection of the Whitney and 50 new sculptures in niches at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, as part of the group exhibition, The Value of Food. On a personal note, Otterness has practiced Tai Chi, martial arts, and boxing in the school of William C. C. Chen since the 1970s, and his studio features a boxing bag...
Category

1990s Contemporary Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Bronze

Small Sunflower
Small Sunflower
H 34.625 in W 16.5 in D 11 in
CAT
By Tom Otterness
Located in New York, NY
Tom Otterness Cat, 1997 Soft Ground Etching 21 1/2 × 15 1/2 inches Edition 7/10 AP Hand-signed by artist, Pencil signed and numbered AP 7/10; unframed; bears original Marlborough Gallery...
Category

1990s Abstract Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Etching

CAT
CAT
H 21.5 in W 15.5 in
Frog with Bee
By Tom Otterness
Located in New York, NY
Tom Otterness, Frog with Bee Image: 10 x 8 inches Sheet: 15 x 12 inches Edition of 40 Tom Otterness was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1952. By 1970 he had arrived in New York to atten...
Category

1990s Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Etching

Sketch for Sculpture Installation
By Tom Otterness
Located in Carmel-by-the-sea, CA
Sketch for Sculpture Installation. Graphite on Paper. 5/5/2002. Framed.
Category

Early 2000s Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Graphite

Man and Woman - Educating the Rich
By Tom Otterness
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Tom Otterness, American (1952 - ) Title: Man and Woman - Educating the Rich (Black) Year: 1993 Medium: Etching, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 4/25 Size: 11 x 11...
Category

1990s Pop Art Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Etching

One Cent and Globe Sculpture
By Tom Otterness
Located in Surfside, FL
I have a pair. the price is for one. you can buy one or both. they are cast in hydrocal. Tom Otterness (born 1952) 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 in New York City—most notably in Rockefeller Park in Battery Park City...
Category

Contemporary Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Plaster

Mama Bear
By Tom Otterness
Located in Long Island City, NY
Title: Mama Bear Year: 2010 Medium: Porcelain Ceramic Cookie Jar Size: 13 x 10 x 9 in. (33.02 x 25.4 x 22.86 cm)
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Expressionist Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Ceramic, Porcelain

Mama Bear
Mama Bear
H 13 in W 10 in D 9 in
Educating The Rich
By Tom Otterness
Located in Long Island City, NY
An original hand-signed etching by Tom Otterness American (1952- ). In excellent condition and nicely framed.
Category

1990s Pop Art Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Etching

Bull Pushing Penny
By Tom Otterness
Located in San Francisco, CA
Category

Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Bronze

Big Frog on Lily Pad with Root System
By Tom Otterness
Located in San Francisco, CA
Edition of 3
Category

Tom Otterness Art

Materials

Bronze

Tom Otterness art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Tom Otterness art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Tom Otterness in metal, bronze, mixed media and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 21st century and contemporary and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Tom Otterness art, so small editions measuring 2 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Jedediah Morfit, Ron Nagle, and Mayme Kratz. Tom Otterness art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $3,500 and tops out at $29,000, while the average work can sell for $5,725.

Artists Similar to Tom Otterness

Recently Viewed

View All