Mary Mattingly
ABOUT IMAGES
currently showing
Medina Triennial 2026, Medina, NY
Mattingly developed Floating Garden (2026), a barge-based living artwork that will start on the Erie Canal during for the 2026 Medina Triennial, and will eventually make its way down the canal to reach NYC. Built on a repurposed industrial barge, Floating Garden draws from a global tradition of floating gardens as tools of resilience and resistance. The piece takes root in these traditions that have allowed communities to maintain food sovereignty and survive ecological upheaval on their own terms. The Triennial runs from June 6–September 7, 2026.
Beneath the Surface: Mining and American Photography, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
The exhibition examines complex relationships between photography and resource extraction in the US. The exhibition is in partnership with the Milwaukee Art Museum, where it will be on display from October 23, 2026–January 18, 2027, and then Amon Carter Museum of American Art, February 14–May 9, 2027
Framing Nature: Gardens and Imagination, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Mary Mattingly’s work Magnetic Field (2023) is currently featured in Framing Nature: Gardens and Imagination, on view March 15 – June 28, 2026. The exhibtion brings together art from across the MFA’s global collection to explore striking similarities and differences across time and place. Visitors can see both beloved favorites and previously unseen masterpieces, all centering the garden as a fertile place for human creativity and imaginative possibility.
recent press
Inaugural Medina Triennial in Western New York Will Include 39 Artists, Artforum
Artists Working on Projects at Medina Triennial, Orleans Hub
Framing Nature: Gardens and Imagination’ opens at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Hube Magazine
BIo
Mary Mattingly is an American visual artist living and working in New York whose work explores issues of sustainability, climate change and displacement. She was born in Rockville, Connecticut in 1978. She has studied at Parsons School of Design in New York, and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon in 2002. She is the recipient of a Yale University School of Art Fellowship.
Mattingly has created many public projects, including the “social sculpture,” Swale, a floating forest on the Bronx River that has one main purpose: to engage New Yorkers in a conversation about the benefits of shared, public food by offering crops to pick and eat. Mary Mattingly participated in Storm King’s upcoming exhibition, “Indicators: Artists on Climate Change” in 2018, where she brought trees from a tropical climate — mango, coconut and fig are in contention — to the Hudson River Valley, calling attention to the way that changing temperatures may affect the future of food. Mattingly participated in MoMA PS1's "Expo 1" in collaboration with Triple Canopy Magazine in 2013, received a Knight Foundation Grant for her WetLand project that opened in 2014 on the Delaware River in Philadelphia, and in 2015, 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. Her first Art 21: New York Close Up documentary video was released in 2013. In 2009 Mattingly founded the Waterpod Project, a barge-based public space and self-sufficient habitat that hosted over 200,000 visitors in New York.
Mary Mattingly’s work has been exhibited at the International Center of Photography, the Seoul Art Center, the Brooklyn Museum, the New York Public Library, deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, and the Palais de Tokyo. Her writings were included in Nature, edited by Jeffrey Kastner in the Whitechapel Documents of Contemporary Art series.
BIRTHPLACE
Rockville, Connecticut, 1978
SOLO & TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2026
All Night I Hear the Sound of Water Sobbing, Materials for the Arts, Queens, NY.
Holding Water, Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington, Delaware
Water Writes The Garden, The Current, Stowe, VT
Night Gardens: An Afterword, Robert Mann Gallery, NY
2025
Equilibrium, Pace University Art Gallery, Pace University, New York, NY
Holding Water, The James Gallery, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY
2024
Night Gardens, Robert Mann Gallery, New York, NY
2023
MUSE Museum, Trento, Italy
2022
Proposals, University Stainar Gallery, VA
2020
Pipelines and Permafrost, Robert Mann Gallery, New York, NY
2019
CU Art Museum, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
2018
Because For Now We Still Have Poetry, Robert Mann Gallery, New York, NY
2016
Objects Unveiled: Boxing, Rolling, Stretching, and Cutting, Institute for the Humanities, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Blockades Boulders and Weights, Light Work, Syracuse NY
2015
Pull, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de la Habana, Cuba
2014
Flock House Project: Omaha, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE
On Land, Flanders Gallery, Raleigh, NC
2013
House and Universe, Robert Mann Gallery, New York, NY
2012
Wearable Portable Architecture, Green Papaya Art projects, Manila, The Phillippines with U.S. Department of State, smARTpower, and the Bronx Museum
The Flock House Project, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Percent for Art commission, New York, NY
2011
The Investigation, Constitution, and Formation of Flock House, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York, NY
The Island is also the Origin, Ramp WINTEC, Hamilton, New Zealand
2010
Nomadographies, Tensta Konsthall, Spanga, Sweden
2009
Nomadographies, Robert Mann Gallery, New York, NY
2008
Mie Kjaergaard and Mary Mattingly, Standpoint, London, UK
2007
Frontier, Galerie Adler, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Time Has Fallen Asleep, New York Public Library, Columbus Branch, NY
2006
Second Nature, Robert Mann Gallery, New York, NY
Fore Cast, White Box, New York, NY
2005
We Go Round and Round in the Night, Feldman Gallery, Portland, OR
2003
The Stage, Lyonswiergallery, New York, NY
2002
Lyonswiergallery, Scope Art Fair, Miami, FL
A New Breed, The New School, New York, NY
2001
Valparaiso, Media Arts Gallery, Portland, OR
Puppets, Disjecta Art Center, Portland, OR
2000
Mary Mattingly, Higgins Gallery, Portland, OR
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026
Beneath the Surface: Mining and American Photography, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
Framing Nature: Gardens and Imagination, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
2025
Working Knowledge, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY
To See This Place: Awakening to Our Common Home, Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA), St. Louis, MO
Learning from the Ant Tunnels, Gangwon Triennale, Korea
2024
Eco Consciousness, Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY
Come Isole / As Islands, Castel Belasi, Italy
To See This Place: Awakening to Our Common Home, Fairfield University Museum of Art, CT
Women Reframe the American Landscape, Woodson Museum of Art and New Britian Museum of Art
Current: Swerving the Apocalyptic Angle into Hope, Glenda Cinquegrana Art, Milan, Italy
A Garden of Promise and Dissent, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, CT
2023
RE/SISTERS: Ecologies, Communities and Survival, Barbican Art Gallery, UK
Mining Photography: The Ecological Footprint of Image Production, KUNST HAUS WIEN, Vienna
Drawing a Line, National Academy of Design, NY
2022
Celebrating Women’s History Month, Robert Mann Gallery, NY
Reconnections: In Kinship with Nature, United Nations Headquarters, New York, NY
Articulating Activism: Works from the Shelley and Donald Rubin Collection, The 8th Floor, New York, NY
Konsum in der Kunst, Museum Biberach, Biberach, Germany
On the Line: Documents of Risk and Faith, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH
Mining Photography: The Ecological Footprint of Image Production, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany
Con los pies en la Tierra, CAAM – Atlantic Center of Modern Art, Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain
Connecting the Drops: The Power of Water, Zuccaire Gallery, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY
2021
Bioceno (Biocene) Biennial, Fundación Municipal Bienal de Cuenca, Cuenca, Ecuador
Wandamba yalungka / Winds change direction, Performa Biennial, New York, NY.
Tip of the Iceberg, Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea, UK
Plastic Heart: Surface All the Way Through, Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Gardenship and State, Museum London, Ontario, Canada
Libro de Recetas para un Planeta “Otro” / Recipe Book for a Planet “Other”, Cuenca Biennial, Ecuador
2020
Overview Effect, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Serbia.
ecofeminism(s), Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, NY
Performative Ecologies, Currents 826, Santa Fe, NM
Researchers: Women Artists Inspired by Science, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA
The World to Come: Art in the Age of the Anthropocene, DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL
2019
Fingers Crossed: Ayer, Ahora y Tal vez Mañana, ADN Galeria Barcelona
Survival Architecture, Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, CA
Survival Architecture, Appleton Museum of Art, FL
Go Figure: The Female Gaze, Hewitt Gallery of Art, New York, NY
The World to Come: Art in the Age of the Anthropocene, University Art Museum, Ann Arbor MI
Fingers Crossed, ADN Platform, Barcelona, Spain
Climate Justice, Museum Arnhem, Netherlands
Environmental Empathies, Saint Francis College, Brooklyn, NY
2018
Indicators: Artists on Climate Change, Storm King Art Center, New Windsor, NY
The World to Come: Art in the Age of the Anthropocene, The Harn Museum of Art, Ganisville, FL
Survival Architecture, Museum of Natural and Cultural History, Eugene, OR
Urban Field Station, The Arsenal Gallery, Central Park, New York, NY
A Changing Climate, Hearst Gallery, New York
Land/Use, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
Sustainable Ecologies, The 8th Floor, New York, NY
Water, OÖKulturquartier, Linz, Austria
2017
Wanderlust, curated by Rachel Adams, University of Buffalo Art Museum, Buffalo, NY
Wanderlust 2, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA
From Outrage to Action, curated by Keith Miller, NYU Gallatin Galleries, New York, NY
Agrikultura, curated by Amanda McDonald Crowley and Marek Walczak, Malmö Public Art, Malmö, Sweden
2016
Radical Seafaring, The Parrish Museum, Watermill NY
Polar Lab, The Anchorage Museum, Anchorage AK
Survival Architecture and the Art of Resilience, Appleton Museum of Art, Ocala, FL
Extracted, University of Southern Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL
Scarcity and Supply, Nanjing International Art Exhibition, Nanjing, China
2015
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de la Havana, Havana, Cuba
Collective Actions, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA), Winston Salem, NC
WetLand, Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Philadelphia, PA
Consumed, University of California Long Beach, Long Beach, CA
2014
Artisteria, Literature Museum, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia
Crossing Brooklyn, The Brooklyn Museum, New York City, NY
Beyond Limits, San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA
Falsework, Blackwood Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Performing for Cyclops, The Pitch Project, Milwaukee, WI
It Should Always Be This Way, CAFKA Biennial, Canada
A Common Space, The Kitchen, The Whitney ISP Curatorial Exhibition, New York City, NY
Distant Images, Local Positions, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York City, NY
2013
System ECOnomies, curated by Lynne Cooney and Dana Clancy, Boston University, Boston, MA
From Process to Progress: Mary Mattingly and Michael Cataldi, Bronx River Art Center, Bronx, NY
Silent Beaches: New York's Forgotten Waterfront, St. John's University, New York City, NY
All of out Tomorrows and Yesterdays, Proof Gallery
2012
Common Interests, Rowan University Art Gallery, NJ
Broken Desert – Land and Sea, The University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
Camp Out: Finding Home in an Unstable World, Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, MO
Streams of Consciousness: The Histories, Mythologies, and Ecologies of Water, Salina Art Center, Salina, KS
Surface Tension, Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology, New York, NY
Resilience and Resistance, Bennington College, Bennington, VT
Under Cover, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
2011
At The Water's Edge, Robert Mann Gallery, New York
Water Water Every Where, BRIC Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
On the Road, Arlington Art Center, Arlington, VA
2010
Condensations of the Social, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY
Future Tense: Landscape in Transition, Stephan Stoyanov Gallery, New York, NY
Global / National, Exit Art, New York, NY
Precious Cargo, UB Art Gallery, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY
Apologies and Further Concessions, BRIC Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
PQ:100, Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY
Synaptic Mimes: the Private Spectacular, KWH Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Waterpod: Autonomy and Ecology, Exit Art, New York, NY
The Nomadic Studio, DePaul University Art Museum, Chicago, IL
2009
The Waterpod, various sites, New York, NY; a public artwork organized by Mattingly in collaboration with artists and professionals, creating a mobile, multi-use architectural space for the waterways of New York City
Trouble in Paradise: Examining Discord Between Nature and Society, Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
Anxious Ground: Contemporary Landscape Photography, College Art Gallery, The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ
Unstuff, Curated by Bridget Stixrood alongside Waterpod Launch, New York, NY
Au Feminin: Women Photographing Women, Centre Calouste Gulbenkian, Paris, France
2008
Water-Currents, Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki, Greece
Prix Pictet, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (Travels to Dubai and beyond)
Surface Tension, Gallery Homeland, Portland, OR
Future Tense, Neuberger Museum, NY
31 Under 31, Curated by Lumi Tan and Jon Feinstein, 3RD WARD, Brooklyn, NY
Video Visionen, O eins, curated by Sabine Himmelsbach, Edith Russ Site for Media Art, Oldenburg, Germany
2007
Other Worlds: Fact and Fiction, Mattatuck Museum
Ecocentric, Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa, CA
Epilogues, Robert Mann Gallery, New York, NY
Bivouac, Art Omi, Ghent, NY
Out of True, Byblos Art Gallery, Verona, Italy
New Climates, Curated by Shane Brennan, Rhizome.org
2006
What War? White Box, New York, NY
Ecotopia, International Center of Photography Triennial, New York, NY
2005
Waterways and Beyond, Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey
Lifeboat – Hamptons, curated by Mary Mattingly and Paul Middendorf, Scope Art Fair, Hamptons, NY
Waterways, curated by Mary Mattingly and Renee Vara, Independent Project during Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy
2004
Lifeboat, artist initiative project curated Mary Mattingly and Paul Middendorf, Art Basel/Postitions, Miami, FL
Lyonswiergallery, Photo New York, New York, NY
Small Works, RAM Gallerie/Foundation, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Jupiter Art Fair, Disjecta Art Center, Portland, OR
Tomorrow, The New York Hall of Sciences, New York, NY
Peekskill Projects, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, NY
Nineteeneighty – Art Show, Rare Gallery, New York, NY
Photo San Francisco, Lyonswiergallery, San Francisco, CA
Transforming Home, RAM Gallerie/Foundation, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Mattingly/Dedes, Duende Ateliers, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Nineteeneighty, ABC No Ria, New York, NY
The Modern Zoo – East Versus West Coast, Disjecta Art Center, Portland, OR
Controlled Chaos, Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY
DNA: Art – Science – The Double Helix, Contemporary Art Museum,Tampa, FL
2003
Visual Aids, Galerie Lelong, New York, NY
(R)evolution: War Face, Pamela Auchincloss Project Space, New York, NY
New Directions, '03, Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY
Best of Show, University of the Arts Space 1401, Philadelphia, PA
Considering Portraits, Neon Gallery, Portland, OR
Nineteeneighty, Atlantic Conference, Brooklyn, NY
Dim Sum, Red 76 – Aalto Lounge, Portland, OR
Nineteeneighty, Atlantic Conference, Brooklyn, NY
2002
Lyonswiergallery, Affordable Art Fair, New York, NY
Art Stall, Red 76 – Aalto Lounge, Portland, OR
Feast, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY
2001
End of the Summer, Gallery at Yale, Norfolk, CT
OHSU Auction, OHSU, Portland, OR
2000
Deck the Walls, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, OR
Awards and Residencies
COLLECTIONS
2023
Guggenheim Foundation Grant
2022 – 2024
Pratt Institute Fellow
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
The Versailles Foundation Residency at Monet's Garden, Giverny, FR
2016
The Watermill Center Residency, Watermill, NY
2015
A Blade of Grass Fellowship, New York, NY
2014
Light Work Residency Program, Syracuse, NY
The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council President’s Award for Visual Art
2013
The James L. Knight Foundation Grant
2012
Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology Fellowship
2011
Harpo Foundation Grant
The Jerome Foundation Travel Grant
New York Foundation for the Arts Sculpture/ Craft Grant
Art Omi Artist-In-Residence, Ghent, NY
2010
Art Matters Foundation Travel Grant
Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Year-Long Studio Residency
Art Omi International Residency
Skowhegan School of Painting Residency
2008
Prix Pictet, Short-listed
New York University Artist-In-Residence
2007
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Residency
Braziers International Artist Residency, Oxfordshire, England
Experimental TV Center Grant
2004
London Photographic Awards
2002
Grant for Photographic Studies, New York
2001
Yale School of Art Fellowship
Opal Filteau Photography Scholarship
The Stephen Swirling Award for Digital Arts
Anchorage Museum, Alaska
Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY
City of New York, Percent for
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