Otto Neals was born on December 11,1931 and is an American painter and sculptor.
10 Facts About Otto Neals
2.
Otto Neals spent most of his career working as an illustrator at the Brooklyn Post Office and pursued independent art projects in his spare time.
3.
Still residing in Crown Heights, Brooklyn in his nineties, Neals continues to create art full-time as he has done for over 76 years.
4.
Otto Neals' education was in Brooklyn, studying commercial art at George Westinghouse Vocational High School, and briefly attended the Brooklyn Museum Art School, though he considers himself largely self-taught.
5.
Otto Neals studied with artists such as Isaac Soyer, Krishna Reddy, Mohammed Khalil, Roberto DeLomanica and Vivian Schuyler Key.
6.
Otto Neals has been a member of the Weusi Artist Collective since the 1960s.
7.
Otto Neals has been commissioned to execute several public works including ten bronze plaques for the Harlem Walk of Fame on 135th street, a 20-foot mural in Kings County Hospital, a bronze of Percy Sutton at the City University of New York, and a bronze monument inspired by the children's book Peter's Chair, as centerpiece of an Imagination Playground in Prospect Park.
8.
Otto Neals is a founding artist of the Fulton Art Fair, the oldest Black visual arts event in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
9.
Mr Otto Neals has been the recipient of many awards during his career as an African American artist residing in New York City.
10.
Otto Neals was presented with the New York City Art Commission's award for Excellence in Design.