Tom Otterness and his little cartoon sculptures

Anybody who has ever been to the 14th Street A/C/E Station in the New York City Subway system has probably seen Tom Otterness’ work. He’s the artist behind those little bronze-like statues and sculptures that often depict cartoon characters in oddball acts and strange circumstances. I don’t normally ride the A/C/E line but when I did happen to pass through, I rarely ever got a chance to stop and read any plaques bearing the artist’s name (if there are any…I’m assuming there are some). So finally, being able to put a name to these works of art is pretty neat.

You can see more of his work at his website. And if you’re interested, he’s got an exhibition up at the moment called Tom Otterness: The Public Unconcious at the Marlborough Chelsea Gallery at 25th Street in Chelsea. You have a couple of more weeks to go before the show closes on Saturday, November 3, 2007! If I were in NYC, I’d go! [Here's the press release PDF]

Anyway, City Room is reporting that Tom’s latest installation, a rather large frog at PS 20 at 166 Essex Street, is most likely his last in NYC for the foreseeable future. Too bad, I say. The city could always use more little cartoon people in random places.