Mary Mattingly

Mary Mattingly

Mary Mattingly is a visual artist. She founded Swale, an edible landscape on a barge in New York City to circumvent public land laws that make it illegal to pick food on public land. Swale co-created the "foodway", a permanent edible landscape in Concrete Plant Park, the Bronx in 2017. The "foodway" is the first time New York City Parks is allowing people to publicly forage in over 100 years. Mary is currently the Artist-in-Residence at the Brooklyn Public Library building an ‘Ecotopian Library’. She recently completed a sculpture Pull with the International Havana Biennial with the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de la Habana and the Bronx Museum of the Arts, currently at the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade. 

In 2018 she worked with BRIC Arts to build What Happens After which involved dismantling a military vehicle and deconstructing its mineral supply chain, focusing on the mineral cobalt. Mary led a similar project at the Museum of Modern Art. Her work has also been exhibited at Storm King, the International Center of Photography, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Palais de Tokyo. It has been included in books such as Whitechapel MIT Press Documents of Contemporary Art series titled Nature, and Henry Sayre’s A World of Art, published by Pearson Education Inc.

Mary's new work, Vanishing Point, is commissioned as part of Estuary 2021 through a partnership between Focal Point Gallery and Metal, with additional funding from Essex 2020 and The National Lottery Community Fund, and supported by local organisations The Old Waterworks and Grrrl Zine Fair.


Instagram: @marymattingly
Facebook: mary.mattingly.39

Estuary 2021 is made possible by

Principal Partners

Creative_Estuary_New_1   ace

Major Partners

ecc uok thurrock thames_gateway selep medway  thames estuary   ebbsfleet    Ebbsfleet mayor locatekent kentcc gravesham uoe bas_coun   south_coun Here for Culture

Commissioning Partners

book_fest community_fund heritage_fund creative_coast bexleysalford fpg lesnes Essex2020Logo The Old Waterworks Logo UCA1

Festival Partners

arts_human uni_south uni_oxford uni_glas send_pier pla opp_se henley Flowers Gallery logoc2c roh southeastern Thamesmead2 Peabody2 BowArts3 raddison uber arriva Canterbury Dartford Faversham Swale1 Thanet Visit c2c1 Chat

Festival Supporters

essex_diversity SouthEssex1 UniversityCentre1 Churches International Exeter Wales Ramm Artist Grand