Mary Mattingly

Mary Mattingly creates sculptural ecosystems in urban spaces. Her work is engaged in questions about how art can influence policy and strengthen the commons. She founded 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.” She completed a two-part sculpture “Pull” for the International Havana Biennial with the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de la Habana and the Bronx Museum of the Arts.

With the U.S. Department of State and Bronx Museum of the Arts she participated in the smARTpower project, traveling to Manila. Mattingly founded the Waterpod Project, a barge-based public space and self-sufficient habitat that hosted over 200,000 visitors in New York.

Her artwork has been 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.

Her projects have been supported by 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.

Her work has been included in books such as the Whitechapel/MIT Press Documents of Contemporary Art series titled “Nature” and edited by Jeffrey Kastner, Triple Canopy’s Speculations, the Future Is… published by Artbook, and Henry Sayer’s A World of Art, 8th edition, published by Pearson Education Inc.