Immersive installation by Mary Mattingly transforms the gallery into a living laboratory for ecological imagination, resilience, and climate adaptation
Pace University Art Gallery will present a solo exhibition by interdisciplinary artist Mary Mattingly. Featuring living sculpture, photography, and performance, the exhibition explores themes of ecological transformation, resource equity, and climate adaptation. The exhibition opens with a free public reception on Friday, September 26 from 5pm to 7pm. The exhibition also includes an artist talk with Mattingly on Thursday, October 23, at 2pm. Equilibrium, which remains on view through Saturday, November 1, 2025.
Known for her ambitious civic projects that merge art, environmental inquiry, and community engagement, Mattingly reimagines the gallery as a collaborative laboratory — a space for co-learning, foraging, cultivation, and speculative reflection aimed at developing shared solutions.
“Since 2001, I’ve lived in New York City, creating sculptural ecosystems that prioritize access to food, shelter, and water,” said Mattingly. “My work often takes the form of participatory initiatives rooted in care, ecological awareness, and collective imagining.”
Equilibrium brings together several ongoing and interconnected bodies of work, including a new site-specific work now in development and Rooted, a living installation composed of plant species selected for their resilience in flood-prone environments like New York City—particularly those affected by saltwater intrusion. The exhibition also includes Salt Forms, sculptural steel discs that accumulate crystalline salt after being submerged in the city’s brackish waterways. Building on the theme of flooding, Mattingly presents buoy bundles and submerged books from her House and Universe series, evoking themes of knowledge loss, overconsumption, and climate-driven decay.
Read the entire press release on Pace University Art Gallery's website.