Associated with the Surrealism movement, he began exhibiting in New York City galleries in the early 1940s, and grew in reputation until garnering Museum attention in 1953 where he was exhibited by the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 1951 he purchased the Long Island estate previously owned by artist Alfred Herter and began devoting a great deal of attention to the estate (called "The Creek"), creating a botanical and sculpture garden and decorating his home with his collages, assemblages, and sculptures. He also had a large collection of contemporary painting and sculpture, as well as primitive and Asian art objects. Ossorio’s own art encompassed painting, sculpture, collage and assemblage art, and he was commissioned to make a number of murals and artworks in public spaces, including Washington Square Park in New York City, and a large circular assemblage for New York’s Hilton Hotel in 1964. He died in New York City in 1990 having shown at the Osaka Art Festival in Japan, the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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