Tom Otterness

Tom Otterness is one of America’s premier public artists, his stylized bronze figures exploring the range of human experience. Otterness describes Tree of Knowledge as “a biblical/ judicial mix of story and image.” In this sculpture, the serpent of knowledge entwines a bronze tree. The serpent eyes an owl judge while blind justice weighs two small human figures. A possum engrossed in a law book hangs upside-down, oblivious to the drama surrounding him. At the bottom of the tree, a crafty beaver-lawyer threatens to topple everything.

Otterness lives and works in New York. His work can be viewed in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (NY), Whitney Museum of American Art (NY), Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh), and Israel Museum, among others.