Tom Otterness is a contemporary American artist. He is best known for his public sculptures, including his Playground on 630 West 42nd St. in New York. Another famous piece Life Underground (2004), inside the 14th Street-Eighth Avenue Station in New York, depicts small bronze figures engaged in various tasks. His cartoonish bronze figures have political undertones, often alluding to issues of money, sex, and class. “It’s a simple language; it’s a cartoon language; it’s smiley, button faces,” the artist said. “People aren’t thrown off by a language they don’t understand.”
Born in Wichita, KS in 1952, he received his formal training at the Art Students League of New York and later at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
