Light Work Presents ‘Mass and Obstruction’

Two works from Mattingly’s “Mass and Obstruction.”

Light Work is presenting “Mass and Obstruction,” featuring the work of Mary Mattingly, on view in the Kathleen O. Ellis Gallery through March 10. A reception and lecture with Mattingly will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 27, from 5-7 p.m. at Light Work and a public lecture at 6 p.m. Refreshments will be served at the reception. Also on view is “2016 Transmedia Photography Annual” in the Light Work Hallway Gallery.

In conjunction with her exhibition at Light Work, Mattingly is presenting “Human and Object,” a selection of video works at Urban Video Project (UVP) at the Everson Museum of Art. The exhibition will be on view until Jan. 30, from dusk-11 p.m. Find more info online at http://www.urbanvideoproject.com.

Mattingly creates photographs, sculpture, video and large-scale public art projects ostensibly about climate change, but revealing deeper focus on survival and endurance in the face of ecological degradation and violence. Describing photography as the universal language of storytelling, Mattingly blurs the line between fact and fiction, present and future. Using her camera both to document and fictionalize over 13 years of her environmental art and activism, she creates images by digitally collaging together multiple locations. These fictional, non-specific locations often look strangely futuristic and allow for a conversation about the earth and our impact on it. For Mattingly the “location” is the world’s ecosystem. She looks at the big picture and forces us as viewers to confront our own culpability and the ethics of our choices, a fundamentally important prerequisite for personal or political change. For the exhibition “Mass and Obstruction,” the artist presents images and objects that emerge from an unflinching scrutiny of her own consumption and lifestyle as an artist.

Mattingly has exhibited her work internationally, including: Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Kitchen, Museo National de Belles Artes de la Habana, International Center of Photography, The Seoul Art Center, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, The New York Public Library, deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park and The Palais de Tokyo. She has been awarded grants and fellowships from the James L. Knight Foundation, A Blade of Grass, Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology, Yale University School of Art, The Harpo Foundation, NYFA, The Jerome Foundation and The Art Matters Foundation. Her work has been featured in Aperture Magazine, Art in America, Artforum, Sculpture Magazine, The New York Times, New York Magazine, Le Monde Magazine, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, on BBC News, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR and NBC, as well as on Art21’s “New York Close Up” series.