Hand and Hammer, 1993
Engraving and Drypoint with Chine Colle, 16 1/4" x 15"
Tom Otterness was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1952. He joined the Art Students League in New York in 1970 and then did an independent study program at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1973. Otterness’ art is extremely accessible to the greater population because he has a way of making metal into friendly figures. He tells mini-fables through his art, and uses his metal figures to focus on the delight in the stories. However, many of his sculptures also tell stories of sex, money, class and race with his capitalist realism style. His works can be seen in parks, plazas, subway stations, libraries, courthouses and museums throughout the world. They are included in collections such as The Hague, the Netherlands, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.