Artist, partner, daughter, sister, and collaborator. Raised in an agricultural town with a textile mill near Springfield, MA, I've lived in NYC since 2001.
Where I grew up, the drinking water was toxic from agricultural chemicals. That framed my understanding of access to clean water as increasingly rare, but also strengthened my resolve that it is both a right and responsibility to protect.
I create sculptural ecosystems that prioritize food, shelter, and clean water, resulting in participatory projects around the world. In 2016, I led Swale, a floating sculpture and edible landscape on a barge in New York that depended upon waterways common law and instigated NYC Parks first public "Foodway."
Beginning with a vision, I create collages and photographs that imagine alternative futures.
My artwork has been able to be shown at institutions such as Storm King Art Center, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Seoul Art Center, the International Center of Photography, the Brooklyn Museum, Barbican Art Gallery, and Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana.
These projects have been generously supported through grants including the Guggenheim Foundation Grant, the James L. Knight Foundation, the Harpo Foundation, NYFA, and Jerome Foundation. They have been featured in documentaries and publications, including Art21, Le Monde, and The New York Times.
Collapsible content
Click here to view my full CV
BOOKS
Osrin, David and Aarathi Prasad. The Work of Art in the Age of Planetary Destruction, 2024
Bell, Nicholas and Julie Decker. Mary Mattingly: What Happens After. Hirmer, 2022
Randolph, Deborah. An Introductory Guide to Qualitative Research in Art Museums. Taylor&Francis / Routledge Press, 2022
Eck, Katharina; Johanna Hartmann; Kathrin Heinz; Christiane Keim. Wohn/Raum/Denken Politiken des Häuslichen in Kunst, Architektur und visueller Kultur Sofort. versandfertig, Deutschlands, 2021
Boetzkes, Amanda, Climate Realism Routledge Press, 2019.
Muller, Ellen. Elements and Principles of 4D Art and Design, Oxford University Press, 2016.
Sayre, Henry, A World of Art, 8th edition, Pearson Education Inc. and Lawrence King Publishing, 2015.
Davis, Heather and Etienne Turpin, Art in the Anthropocene: Encounters Among Aesthetics, Politics, Environments and Epistemologies Open Humanities Press, 2015
Speculations ("The future is ______"), Triple Canopy, 2015
Michaels, Maria Media Art and the Urban
Environment: Engendering Public Engagement with Urban Ecology Pub. Springer-Verlag, 2015
Tsai, Eugenie and Rujeko Hockley. Crossing Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum, NY, 2014
Common Spaces, The Whitney ISP, The Whitney Museum, NY, 2014
Goldfarb, Maximilian and Matt Bua. Drawing Building, Lawrence King, 2012
Kastner, Jeffrey. Nature, Documents of Contemporary Art Series, Whitechapel/MIT Press, 2012
Knode, Marilu and Dana Turkovic, Camp Out: Finding Home in an Unstable World Laumeier Sculpture Park
Sullivan, Lexi Lee, Temporary Structures, deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, 2012
Bogre, Michelle, Photography as Activism: Images for Social Change, Focal Press, 2012
Water, Prix Pictet, teNeuse, 2009
Au Féminin, Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkian, Paris, 2008
Trouble in Paradise, Tucson Museum of Art, 2008
Wallis, Brian, Edward Earle, Christopher Phillips, Carol Squires. Ed. Joanna Lehan Ecotopia ICP/Steidl 2006
PUBLIC ART
2022: River Lab, Pier 17, New York, NY
2021: Limnal Lacrimosa, Glacier National Park, MT
Public Water, commission through
More Art, New York, NY
Vanishing Point, Thames River, UK curated by Metal and Focal Point Gallery
Riverside Park Reading Room, New York, NY
Malmo Reading Room, Malmo, Sweden
2020: Ecotopian Library, Anchorage Museum, Anchorage, AK
Stars Down To Earth, Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, NY curated by Cora Fisher
2019: Open Ocean, Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, CT
2018: Pull, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA
2017: Everything At Once, Boulder Public Art, CO
2016: Swale, New York City (ongoing)
Transforming a Military Trailer, Museum of Modern Art’s Cullman Center, NY
WetLand, with the Parrish Museum, Sag Harbor, NY
2015: Pull, Havana Biennial, Parque Central, Havana, Cuba
Wading Bridge, Des Moines Public Art Foundation Commission, Des Moines, IA
Torus, Toronto Waterfront, Ontario Canada
NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, "Flock House" Percent for Art Commission, Staten Island NY
2014: WetLand, Philadelphia, PA (Commission by Knight Foundation/ UPenn’s
Environmental Humanities)
The Flock House Project Omaha with Bemis Center for the Arts, Omaha, NE
2013: Triple Island, New York City, NY (Commission by Paths to Pier 42)
2012: The Flock House Project, New York City, NY (2012 – 2015) locations including Battery Park in Manhattan, the
Bronx Museum of the Arts in the Bronx, 125 Maiden Lane in Manhattan, Seward
Park in Manhattan, Pearl Street Triangle in Brooklyn, and Flushing Meadows
Corona Park in Queens.
Green Papaya Art Projects, Manila, The Philippines, with U.S. Department of State
smARTpower and the Bronx Museum, “Wearable Portable Architecture”
2009: Founder of Waterpod Project, New York City’s five boroughs, NY
2005: Venice Biennial, Italy “Waterways” Independent initiative curated by Mary Mattingly, Renee Vara.
Istanbul Biennial, Turkey, “Waterways and Beyond,” curated by Mary Mattingly,
Renee Vara.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025: Pulitzer Foundation, St. Louis, MO
The James Gallery, New York, NY
2023: Ebb of a Spring Tide, Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, NY
2022: W&L University Stainar Gallery, “Proposals” Virginia
2021: Robert Mann Gallery, “Pipelines and Permafrost” New York, NY
Anchorage Museum
“Wearable Homes” Anchorage AK
National Arts Club, “Scarred Landscapes” New York, NY
2019: CU Art Museum, “Last Library” University of Colorado, Boulder CO
Open Ocean, Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, CT
2018: Robert Mann Gallery, “Because For Now We Still Have Poetry” New York, NY
BRIC Brooklyn “What Happens After?” Brooklyn, NY
2017: Versailles Foundation, Monet’s Garden “I…I’ll go on” Giverny, FR
Watkins School of Art “I… I’ll go on” Memphis, TN
2016: Institute for the Humanities, University of Michigan, “Objects
Unveiled: Boxing, Rolling, Stretching, and Cutting” Ann Arbor, MI
Light Work, Syracuse NY, “Mass and Obstruction”
2015: Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de la Habana, Cuba, “Pull”
2014: Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE, “Mary Mattingly”
2013: Robert Mann Gallery, New York, “House and Universe”
2011: WINTEC, Hamilton, New Zealand, “The Island is also the Origin”
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, “The Investigation, Constitution, and Formation of Flock House”
2010: Occurrence Espace d'art et
d'essai Contemporains, Montreal “The Anatomy of Melancholy”
2009: Robert Mann Gallery, New York,
NY, “Nomadographies”
2007: Galerie Adler, Frankfurt,
Germany "Frontier"
New York Public Library, New York, NY, "Time Has Fallen Asleep"
2006: White Box, New York, NY,
"Fore Cast"
Robert Mann Gallery, New York, NY, "Second Nature"
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025: Miner, Albey and David Brinker “To See This Place: Awakening to Our Common
Home” Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, St. Louis MO
2024: Petukhova, Vera “Eco Consciousness” Bronx Museum of the Arts
Cagol, Stefano. “Come
Isole / As Islands” Castel Belasi, Italy
Miner, Albey and David Brinker “To See This Place:
Awakening to Our Common Home” Fairfield University Museum of Art, Connecticut
“Women Reframe the American Landscape” Woodson Museum of Art and New Britian Museum of
Art
Cagol, Stefano. “Current: Swerving the Apocalyptic Angle into Hope” Glenda
Cinquegrana Art Consulting
2023: Pardo, Alona. "RE/SISTERS: Ecologies, Communities and
Survival" Barbican Art Gallery, UK
“Women Reframe the American Landscape” Thomas Cole Historic Site
Haslinger, Sophie. “Mining Photography. The ecological footprint of image production” KUNST HAUS WIEN GmbH. Vienna
2022:
Rakhimova, Laziza. “Reconnections: In Kinship with Nature.” United Nations, NY
“Articulating Activism: Works from the Shelley and Donald Rubin Collection.” The Eighth Floor, NY
Bihr, Dr. Judith. ”Konsum in der Kunst.” Museum Biberach, Biberach, Germany
Best, Makeda, Kevin Moore. “On the Line: Documents of Risk and Faith.” Lois and Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, Cincinnati, OH
Levin, Boaz and Dr. Esther Ruelfs. “Mining Photography: The Ecological Footprint of Image Production.”
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
Torre, Blanca de la, Eric Zoran. “Con los pies en la Tierra.” CAAM Las Palmas
2021: de la Torre, Blanca. "Biocene Biennial.” Fundación Municipal Bienal de Cuenca, Ecuador
“Wandamba yalungka/Winds change direction.” Performa, New York, NY
“Tip of the Iceberg” Focal Point Gallery, Essex
Synthetic Collective. “Plastic Heart” CAM at the University of Toronto, Toronto, CA
Patrick Mahon “Gardenship and State.” Museum London, Ontario CA
CAM at the University of Toronto “Plastic
Heart” Toronto, CA curated by Synthetic Collective
Cuenca Biennale, “LIBRO DE RECETAS PARA UN PLANETA “OTRO”/ RECIPE BOOK FOR A PLANET “OTHER” Cuenca, Ecuador, curated by Blanca de la Torre
2020: Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade “Overview Effect”
Thomas Erben Gallery “ecofeminism(s)” New York, NY curated by Monika Fabijanska
Currents 826, "Performative Ecologies" Santa Fe, NM curated by Patricia Watts
Des Moines Art Museum “Researchers: Women Artists Inspired by Science” curated by Laura Burkhalter
DePaul Art Museum, “The World to Come: Art in the Age of the Anthropocene” Chicago, IL
2019: Museum of Craft and Design, “Survival Architecture” San Francisco, CA curated by Randy Rosenberg
Appleton Museum of Art, “Survival Architecture” Ocala, FL curated by Randy Rosenberg
Hewitt Gallery of Art, “Go Figure: The Female Gaze” New York, NY curated by Hallie Cohen
University Art Museum, Ann Arbor MI, “The World to Come: Art in the Age of the Anthropocene”
ADN Platform, “Fingers Crossed” Barcelona, Spain curated by Sue Spaid and Blanca de la Torre
Museum Arnhem, “Climate Justice” Arnhem, Netherlands
Gallatin Galleries,
New York University, “Overflow” New York, NY
Saint Francis College, Environmental Empathies” Brooklyn, NY curated by Katherine Gressel
2018: Storm King “Indicators: Artists on
Climate Change” NY curated by Nora Lawrence
The Harn Museum of Art, "The World to Come: Art in the Age of the
Anthropocene" Ganisville, FL curated by Kerry
Oliver-Smith
Museum of Natural and Cultural History, Eugene, OR “Survival Architecture”
curated by Randy Rosenberg
The Arsenal in Central Park, "New York City Urban Field Station" New York, NY
Hearst Gallery “A Changing Climate” New York, NY
Maryland Institute of Contemporary Art “Land/Use” Baltimore, MD
The 8th Floor “Sustainable Ecologies” New York, NY curated by Sara Reisman
OOKulturquartier “Water” Linz, Austria
2017: University of Buffalo Art Museum “Wanderlust” curated by Rachel Adams Buffalo, NY
Des Moines Art Center “Wanderlust 2” Des Moines, IA
New York University “FROM OUTRAGE TO ACTION: PROPOSALS FOR THE CLIMATE, RESOURCES, AND THE PLANET” curated by Keith Miller
Malmo Public Art “Agrilkutura” Curated by Amanda McDonald Crowley and Marek
Walczak, Malmo Sweden
2016: The Parrish Museum “Radical Seafaring”
curated by Andrea Grover, Watermill NY
The Anchorage Museum “Polar Lab” Anchorage, AK curated by Julie Decker
Artworks for Change
“Survival Architecture and the Art of Resilience” curated by Randy Rosenberg
University of Southern Florida Contemporary Art Museum “Extracted” curated
by Megan Voeller, Tampa, FL
Nanjing International Art Exhibition “Scarcity and Supply” curated by
Nathalie Boseul Shin Nanjing, China
2015: Southeastern Center for Contemporary
Art (SECCA), "Collective Actions" Winston Salem, NC
Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, “WetLand” Philadelphia, PA
University Art Museum, “Consumed” University of California Long Beach
2014: Artisteria, Literature Museum, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia curated by Magda Guruli, Lydia Matthews
The Brooklyn Museum, NY “Crossing Brooklyn” curated by Eugenie Tsai and Rujeko Hockley
San Diego Art Institute, “Beyond Limits” curated by Ginger Shulick Porcella and
Denise Carvalho
Blackwood Gallery, “Falsework” Toronto Canada
CAFKA Biennial, Canada “It Should Always Be This Way”
The Kitchen, New York, NY “A Common Space” The Whitney Curatorial Exhibition
Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, “Distant Images, Local Positions” curated by
Waafa Bilal
2013: St. John’s University, “Silent Beaches: New York’s Forgotten Waterfront” curated by Elizabeth Albert
Boston University, "System ECOnomies" curated by Lynne Cooney and
Dana Clancy
Bronx River Art Center, "From Process to Progress: Mary Mattingly and
Michael Cataldi”
2012:
Rowan University, “Common Interests” curated by Sara Reisman
The University of Arizona Museum of Art, "Broken Desert - Land and
Sea" curated by Lauren Rabb
Laumeier Sculpture Park, “Camp Out: Finding Home in an Unstable World”
Salina Art Center, Kansas, “Streams of Consciousness: Histories, Mythologies,
and Ecologies of Water”
Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology, “Surface Tension” New York, NY
Bennington College, “Resilience and Resistance” Bennington, VT
Maryland Institute College of Art, “Under Cover” Baltimore, MD
2011:
Lianzhou Foto 2011, "The Social Landscape" Lianzhou, China
Arko Art Center, "Labour of Love " Seoul, South Korea, curated by
Nathalie Boseul Shin
deCordova Museum, “Temporary Structures: Performing Architecture in
Contemporary Art” MA
Seoul Art Center, “Imagine Earth” Seoul, South Korea
Arlington Arts Center, “On the Road” Arlington, VA
2010:
Occurrence Espace d'art et d'essai Contemporains, "Dans l'archipel du
Waterpod" Montreal, Canada
DePaul University Art Museum, "The Nomadic Studio" Chicago, IL
Smack Mellon, "Condensations of the Social" Brooklyn, NY curated by
Sara Reisman
Exit Art, “Global/National, The Order of Chaos” New York, NY
University of Buffalo, “Precious Cargo,” Buffalo, NY curated by Paul Sargent
2009:
Culturel Calouste Gulbenkian, “Au Feminin” Paris, France
Tucson Museum of Art, "Trouble in Paradise: Examining Discord Between
Nature and Society" Tuscon, AZ
Eindhoven University of Technology, “Water” Netherlands
Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, “Water – Currents” Greece
Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Dubai
Palais de Tokyo, "Prix Pictet"
Paris, France
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2024 : Sérgio de Oliveira, Luiz “Mary Mattingly” arte :lugar :cidade Journal
2023:
Garden Castro, Jan. “ Repetition & Endurance” Sculpture Magazine
Chan, Chelsea. Mary Mattingly’s Eco Conscious Activism – Imagined Futures in Bloom.” Jejune Magazine
Lee, Shannon. “A Trickle in Time, Mary Mattingly’s Watery Manifesto for Collective Futures” Mold Magazine
2022: Lescaze, Zoë. “How Should Art Reckon with Climate Change?” T Magazine, New York Times
21 Questions with Artist Mary Mattingly, Curbed New York
De Angelis, Piermario. “Geology and Climate Justice in Mary Mattingly’s Images”
Juliet Magazine
2021: Corbetta, Caroline. “Rebecca Mendes, Agnes Denes, and Mary Mattingly.” Domus Magazine
Reiss, Julie. “Public Water.” Brooklyn Rail
Englefield, Jane. “Watershed Core is a cyclical installation that filters
rainwater in New York.” Dezeen
Levere, Jane. “Public Water Presents New York’s Complex Drinking Water System
in Miniature.” Metropolis
Russo, Jillian. “Wandamba yalungka.../Winds change direction...” Hyperallergic
Kent, Charlotte. “Pipelines and Permafrost.” The Brooklyn Rail
Bury, Louis. “Pipelines and Permafrost.” Hyperallergic
2020: Sheila Wickouski “ecofeminism(s) Connects Feminism, Art and Eco-Consciousness” Ms Magazine
Linda Weintraub “ecofeminism(s) - Thomas Erben Gallery,” Flash Art
ecofeminism(s)” Alex A Jones, The Brooklyn Rail
“Mary Mattingly is the Brooklyn Public Library’s Artist in Residence” Artforum
Peter Libbey “Mary Mattingly Named Brooklyn Public Library’s Artist in Residence” New York Times
2019: Judith H. Dobrzynski,
“Tired of Model Ships? Try a Priceless Turner” Wall Street
Journal
Tess Gruenberg, “The Future of Food” Dazed Magazine
“Mystic Seaport Museum to Open New Exhibition” Norwich Bulletin
Alison Dell and Mary Mattingly, “Collaborating with Nature: Public Art &
the Environment” Public Art Dialogue
“Mary Mattingly: Material Supply Chains and Eco-Traumas” The Brooklyn Rail
Astrid Schoenhagen, “Wearable Homes” wohnen+/-ausstellen
Baya BELLANGER “Regard sur l'architecture” Réalisatrice
Louis Bury, “At Union Studio, Artists Engage in
Serious Play Around Notions of Ecology” Hyperallergic
2018: Ilana Novick “Taking Apart the War Machine to See
What’s Inside” Hyperallergic
Zoe Lescaze “12 Artists on Climate Change” New York Times
Jillian Steinhauer, “Mary Mattingly” New York Times
Louis Bury, The Ghosts of Our Future Climate at Storm King, Hyperrallergic
New Yorker, “Outdoor Artworks Tackle Environmental Issues, At Storm King”
Nadja Sayej, Artists on Climate Change: The Exhibition Tackling a Global Crisis, the
Guardian
Jen Carlson, Storm King’s Sprawling New Exhibit Explores Climate Change, Gothamist
Patrick Rogers, In Upstate New York, a Summer of Climate Change Art, NRDC
Louis Bury, “Mary Mattingly’s Poetry of Things” Hyperallergic
Mara Silvers, “This Harvest Season Check Out Concrete Plant Park” NPR
2017:
Daniel McDermon “Storm King Show to Focus on Climate Change in 2018” New York Times
Swale: New York Post, PSFK, The Atlantic, Hyperallergic, ABC News, New York 1,
Huffington Post, Bloomberg
News, Conde
Nast, Curbed, The
Verge, Time
Out New York, New
York Times, Surface
Magazine, BBC World,
CNN Going Green, Vice, CBS, National Public Radio, Slate
2016:
Michael McCanne, "Movable Feast: Mary Mattingly's Floating Garden" Art in
America
Susan Delson, "An Artist Floats an Edible Forest" The Wall Street Journal
"This Floating Food Forest Barge Is Nourishing Communities for Free" Huffington Post
Swale, Bronx12 Swale, NY1
Imogen Rowland, "The Floating Forest" Ronda
Swale, NBC, CBS, BBC
Kristine Wong "Swale" Stanford Social Innovation Review, CA
Ryan Steadman "Don't Be Surprised to see a Floating Garden in NYC's Harbor" New York Observer
Wendy Joan Biddlecombe "Floating Food Forest to Move Through the NY Harbor"
Metro New York
Eillie Anzilotto "An Urban Food Forest Takes to the Waterways" The Atlantic
Erin Blakemore "New York's Newest Urban Farm Floats" The Smithsonian
2015:
Wilson Tarbox "The Story of an Installation in a Polluted River and Its Removal" Hyperallergic
Allison Meier "Mobile Food Forest to Float the NYC Waterways in Spring 2016" Hyperallergic
Michael Morain "Rushing river
delays plans for Water Works foot-bridge" The Des Moines Register
Holland Cotter “The Havana Biennial is
in Full Throttle” The New York Times
Leslie Kaufman, “WetLand” Sculpture Magazine
Michael Morain “A Ripple Effect” Des Moines Register
Scott Simon “As
U.S. Reengages With Cuba, Art Museums Make a Trade” NPR
Carolina Miranda “Arts have been vital U.S.-Cuba link; the thaw will make them better”
LA Times
Bruce Chapman “Floating World” Winston-Salem Journal
2014: Ben Brantley “Fringe Festival, WetLand Philadelphia” The New York Times
WetLand, Philadelphia Weekly
WetLand, Philly Magazine
Holland Cotter "Common Spaces," The New York Times
Martha Schwendener "A Critic's Picks in Brooklyn, An Embattled Utopia,"
New York Times
Sabrina DeTurk "Distant Images,
Local Positions," Afterimage
Alison Schweichler “Many groups are working to effect positive change,” Buffalo News
Colin Dabkowski “Performing Economies” Buffalo News
Jack Foran, “Performing Economies Colloquium,” ArtVoice
“Mary Mattingly: Flock House Project Omaha: A Citywide Workshop” NPR
"The Flock House Project Sets Up in Old Market and North Omaha" Action 3 News KWTV
Eleanor Heartney “Art for the Anthropocene Era” Art in America
2013: Kareem Estafan “Mary Mattingly” Art in America
“Mary Mattingly on Alan Sekula” Art in America
Joanna Ruth Epstein “House and
Universe” ArtNews
Colby Chamberlain “Mary Mattingly”
Artforum
Vince Aletti "Mary Mattingly"
The New Yorker
Martha Schwendener "Mary Mattingly: House and Universe" New York Times
The Lookout "Mary Mattingly" Art in America
Susan Silas "A Bag Lady By Any Other Name" Hyperallergic
David A. Willis "At Home in the World" ArtSlant
Noor Brara "The Weight of Mary Mattingly's World" Interview Magazine
Greg Lindquist,
"Descending into the Abyss with Double Negative" The Brooklyn Rail
"New Pier 42 Project Hooks People with Art and Fishing" The Villager
"Paths to Pier 42," Urban Omnibus
Interview with Greg Lindquist , "The Life of Objects," Art in
America.com
Museums and Galleries, "Process and Progress," New York Times
Skyler Reid, "From Trash to Treasure," Mott Haven Herald
2012: Margaret
Regan, "Scorched Earth," Tucson Weekly
Miguel Miranda, "The Extremophile," China Business
News
Marika B. Constantino, "Shelter Me," Philippine
Star
Filipina Lippi, "Mattingly's Wearable and Portable
Architecture," The Manila Bulletin
Tito Genova Valiente, "Wearing Moving Art: Mary
Mattingly's Social Vision," Business Mirror Philippines
"US Cultural Ambassador to Initiate Public Art
Project," The Manila Times
Hilary Howard, "Serious Artists Plan Whimsy in the
Sand," The New York Times
Anne Mancuso, "Photography Shows and Discussions in the
Parks," The New York Times
Nick Miller, "Flock Houses Land in New York's Public
Spaces," The Architect's Newspaper
" Martha Schwendener, "Contempo Boat Artists Float Their
Ideas," The Village Voice
Wendy Vogel, “Nature,” The Brooklyn Rail
Greg Lindquist, “Is Newness Still New?” The Brooklyn Rail
"Events: The Flock House Project," CBS News
"Join Artist Mary Mattingly’s Latest Sustainable
Commune, the Flock House Project," Art + Auction
Laura Elizabeth Barone, “Camp Out: Finding Home in an Unstable World,”
Temporary Art Review
Diane Toroian Keaggy, Give me shelter: Laumeier's 'Camp Out' looks at what
makes home,” St. Louis Post
Sheilah Kast, "Under Cover: Maryland Morning,"
WYPR Radio
"Under Cover" Events Listings, Metropolis Magazine
Andrea Appleton, "Under Cover at MICA’s Decker Gallery,
Baltimore City Paper
2011
Brian Boucher, "Team America - Artists as Cultural
Ambassadors," Art in America
Emily Costello, "deCordova Group Show Redefines
Architecture," Lincoln Journal
Chris Bergeron, "deCordova Exhibit Encourages Visitors
to Interact With Art," The Milford Daily News
Claire Ross, "The Investigation, Constitution, and
Formation of Flock House," Urban Omnibus
Louise Risk, “Mary Mattingly, The Island is also The Origin”
Waikato Times
The Arts On Sunday with Lynn Freeman, National Radio New Zealand
CAFKA TV,
"Big Ideas in Art and Culture," CAFKA and Musagetes
Shane Danaher, "Interview with Mary Mattingly," Rough Copy
Eva Diaz, "Dome Culture in the Twenty-first
Century," Grey Room
Kathryn Yuoeff, "Climate Change and the
Imagination," WIREs
Nadine Comeau, “Mary Mattingly,” Dialect Magazine
2010:
Claire Barliant, “Mary Mattingly: Safe,” Icon Magazine
Ovation TV, “Collective
Intelligence,” Ovation TV
“Islands,” Cabinet Magazine, insert
Luigi Amara, “For an Unsustainable Art,” Fahrenheit
Contemporary Art
Martha Schwendener, “Smack Mellon Hosts Condensations of the
Social,” Village Voice
“A Utopian Barge,” Colors Magazine
Stephen Brown, “Spend a Night Sleeping With An Artist,” The
Brooklyn Paper
2009:
Robin Michals, “Facing the Meltdown,” Afterimage
“20 in 10, Here are the Ones to Watch Next Year,” Brooklyn
Paper
Allison Lind, “Air Ship Air City: Sustainable Home Will
Float in the Clouds,” Yahoo! News
Melena Ryzik, “The Waterpod Artist Heads for the Roof,” New York Times Arts Beat
Stephen Brown, "Is This Brooklyn's Craziest Crib?"
Brooklyn Paper
"The Waterpod Project," Sculpture Magazine
Christopher Turner, “A Floating Island of Sustainability,”
Nature Magazine
Sunday Times Style, London, UK
Events, “Waterpod Project,” Time Out New York
Heather Alexander, “Waterpod to Combat Rising Seas,” BBC News
Ben Johnson, “13 Hours Onboard Waterpod,” Staten Island
Advance
Tara Lynn Wagner, “Waterpod Brings Green Sea Living To
S.I.”, NY1 News
Brian Williams, “Mary Mattingly on the Waterpod,” MSNBC
Melena Ryzik, “Life and Art, Afloat on a Barge in the New
York Harbor,” New York Times
Steven Kurutz, “A Fluid Definition of Self Sufficiency,” New
York Times
Waterpod, the Floating Biosphere, Readies for Launch, Gothamist
Alyssa Danigelis, The Waterpod Project, Discovery News
Shakthi Jothianandan, The Waterpod, Time Out New York
Karen Rosenberg, “Mary Mattingly, Nomadographies,” New York
Times
Vince Aletti, “Mary Mattingly,” Goings On About Town, The
New Yorker
“Nomadographies,” Datensklaven
Lauren O’neill-Butler, “Mary Mattingly, 500 Words” ArtForum,
“Mary Mattingly, Nomadographies,” Actuo Photo
AWARDS
and RESIDENCIES
2020: Surf
Point Foundation Artist in Residence
Wave
Hill, Bronx, NY
Artist-in-residence
at the Brooklyn Public Library, NY
2019: University of Colorado Museum of Art Fellowship
SEED Lab, Anchorage Museum, Anchorage AK
2018: Awarded, BRIC 40 Year Anniversary
Rauschenberg Foundation Captiva Residency
2017: Monet’s Garden, Giverny, FR
2016: Watermill Center, Watermill, NY
2015: A Blade of Grass Fellowship, New York, NY
The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council President’s Award for Visual Art
2014: Light Work Residency Program, Syracuse, NY
2013: The James L. Knight Foundation
Grant
2012 : Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology Fellowship
smARTpower, Artist Ambassador to the Philippines, Bronx Museum and U.S.
Department of State
2011: Harpo Foundation Grant
The Jerome Foundation Travel Grant
New York Foundation for the Arts Sculpture Grant
Art Omi Artist-In-Residence, Ghent, NY
2010: Art Matters Foundation Travel
Grant
Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Year-Long Studio Residency
2008: New York University
Artist-In-Residence
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Residency
ACADEMIC
POSITIONS
2025
- 2022: Confluence Low-Res MFA, Co-Director, University of New Mexico
2022 - 2017: Nomad Program, University of Hartford, Interim Director and Adjunct
Professor, “MFA Projects Thesis” and “River Lab”
2020
- 2015: Pratt Institute, Adjunct Professor, “MFA Sculpture 2”
2018
- 2017: Hunter College, Adjunct Professor “MFA Tutorial”
2017
- 2016: Yale University School of Art, “MFA Core Critic”
2018
- 2015: Rutgers University Camden, Visiting Professor, “Art and Urban
Sustainability”
2018
- 2015: Parsons School of Design, Adjunct Professor, “Sustainable Systems”
2015:
The Cooper Union, Visiting Professor of Photography, “Wolfe Chair in
Photography”
2016
- 2014: Massachusetts College of Art “MFA Thesis Advisor”
2008:
International Center of Photography/Bard “MFA Master Class”
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Art Omi, NY
Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY
Cleveland Clinic Art Program
Colorado State University, Colorado
deCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
DePaul University Museum of Art, Chicago, Il
Des Moines Art Center, Iowa
Deutsche Bank, Germany
Fidelity Investments
Friends of Photography, NY
International Center of Photography, NY
Light Work, Syracuse NY
Museo Nacional de
Bellas Artes de La Habana, Cuba
National Resources
Defense Council
Portland Art Museum, OR
The Richard Massey Foundation for Arts
and Sciences, NY
Rose Goldsen Archive, Cornell University
The Roswell Museum of Art, Roswell, NM
Skowhegan School of Painting and
Sculpture, New York, NY
Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Yale University, CT
Mattingly has
lectured at such institutions as the United Nations, New York and UNCRR,
Geneva, Yale University School of Art; Harvard
University; University of Michigan’s Penny Stamps series; University of Oxford, UK; the Conference
on World Affairs in Boulder, CO; The College Art Association; Democracy
Alliance, New York Armory with Art21; The Museum of Modern Art; The Bronx Museum of the Arts; The Queens
Museum of Art; The Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the Brooklyn Public
Library with the Night of Philosophy and Ideas; and the New York Public
Library.
"All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art.”
― Jorge Luis Borges, Twenty-Four Conversations with Borges, 1981-1983
2015 A Blade of Grass Fellow Mary Mattingly created Swale, a floating food forest that invites the public to cultivate fresh food as it travels through NYC harbors, acting as a setting for conversations about food and public policy.
Cobalt
The work of Mary Mattingly suggests an undeniable suspension of disbelief, a leap of some brand of faith, but with eyes open. Her work and ideas are striking, and precipitate a change in consciousness… to foresee a place that doesn’t pretend to be utopia, but instead offers an alternative way of being, of thinking that is dependent on the stark reality of our choices made or unmade, unadorned. What are we willing to sacrifice in the process to ultimately secure a sustainable way of life and respectful co-existence?
During her fellowship at the University of Michigan, Mattingly traveled to the Upper Peninsula, exploring its terrain and cobalt mines. She thrifted for glassware and other goods, visited trash sites, met with metal workers, and airplane mechanics. She engaged with students at U-M from diverse departments collecting personal objects for a sacred burial on the Diag, a related project to her installation in the gallery. Each workshop included the ritual of tea, storytelling, drawing, but also 3D imaging which became part of her digital archives. There was never any sense that she placed more value on one object or another, or one ritual, but rather, and all became part of a bundle.
In preparation for her exhibition, the cumulative cobalt hue of her studio at U-M Stamps School which was comprised of her forgings…blue glass, blue powder, blue fabrics, blue pipes, was both infatuating and intoxicating. Scales and diagrams, photographs taken on location, and a series of carefully orchestrated suspensions and pulleys all seemed to potentially lead us to some peculiar and certain destination, a Eureka moment of an exalted explorer, a promise. Perhaps the true brilliance was the way everything seemingly converged, only to reveal loose ends, connections and disconnections, a network of tangents, a mesh of turns, the various routes of mazes. The work Mary Mattingly creates can only exist because, although she fully recognizes the impossibility of things, she insists on residing in the realm of the possible.
—Amanda Krugliac, Curator at U-M Institute for the Humanities
Wetland
Wetland was designed as a mobile, public space that functions both as an art residency and ecological installation. Repurposed materials make sustainable systems like rainwater collection and purification, greywater filtration, composting setups, and vegetable gardens as well as a bee hive and chicken coop, further emphasizing ecological balance. - Knight Foundation
Mary Mattingly Owns Up
Do objects come with responsibility? In this film, Mary Mattingly transforms personal belongings into absurd sculptural forms that she later incorporates into photographs and performative actions. Experimenting with living in her Greenpoint studio space, Mattingly is determined to live with just the bare essentials.
Over several months, she undertakes a process of recording every object she owns and tracing the history of each of her belongings—how it came into her life, its distribution via complex global supply chains, as well as where the raw materials for its manufacture was sourced—before uploading a digital version of each object to her website OWN-IT.US for others to access. Throughout this process, she takes stock of the environmental and societal impact of her personal consumption.
Mattingly aggregates all of her personal belongings into boulder-like sculptural bundles, held together with rope, so that she is able to roll and drag them. She’s photographed walking the sculpture Fill (Obstruct) (2013) across the Bayonne Bridge, from Staten Island to New Jersey, and to the Port of New York New Jersey—symbolically returning her personal belongings to the place where they entered the East Coast.
-Art21
Triple Island
“Triple Island has a very specific aesthetic intention,” says Mattingly, “and it is to imagine a world with leftover materials and how you would build and what it would look like.” Through summer heat and winter cold, the artist and several intrepid volunteers live in the sculpture, collecting rain for water, harnessing solar energy for power, and harvesting a garden for food. Residents’ motives for participating vary widely; for artist Ivan Gilbert, Triple Island offers a chance to gain “a few more degrees of relative freedom from giant inhuman institutions.” Partnering with a coalition of advocacy organizations, such as the Hester Street Collaborative and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Mattingly’s project is less an experiment in individualistic self-sufficiency as it is in the communal sharing of local resources. - Art21
The Waterpod Project
The Waterpod was a project that combined art, sustainability, and activism in a floating, self-sufficient, mobile habitat designed to explore environmental issues and alternative ways of living. The project was an experimental living space built on a barge, designed to function as a sustainable ecosystem with a focus on water conservation and urban resilience.
The Waterpod included a range of eco-friendly systems, including rainwater collection, renewable energy sources, and sustainable farming practices. It housed artists who lived aboard and engaged in environmental education, public programming, and artistic collaborations. The project was not only a living space but also a platform for raising awareness about climate change, sustainability, and the impact of human activity on natural resources, particularly water.
Located in New York City, The Waterpod served as both a symbol of resilience in the face of rising sea levels and a practical demonstration of how alternative, water-based living could be integrated into urban environments. It was a reflection on the future of cities in the context of climate change and a call to action for sustainable living practices. The project highlighted the importance of water management, community-building, and the need for creative solutions to environmental challenges.