Maria using an etching needle to engrave a copper plate for an intaglio print
bio
Maria Mangano is an artist whose work focuses on the intersection of nature, museums, and science to address issues of wildness, conservation, memory, and humanness. A native of Syracuse, NY, Mangano moved to Pittsburgh, PA to attend Carnegie Mellon University, where she earned her BFA in Printmaking/Drawing/Painting. She has exhibited in Pittsburgh, and regionally in several cities, including Chautauqua, NY; Cincinnati, OH; and Williamsburg, NY. In 2014 her work was included in Errol Fuller’s book The Passenger Pigeon, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the death of Martha, the last Passenger Pigeon. Mangano maintains a studio in Pittsburgh’s Point Breeze neighborhood.
artist statement
In my art, I look at the way museums, academia, and other systems create a lens that affects our understanding of nature: how that lens influences people’s opinions, how it alienates us from or compares us to the natural world, how it inspires awe and wonder, and how it causes us to alter nature in the very act of observing it. Studying the systems and the methods they use to dissect and define tell us as much about humanity as they do the natural world; nature, on the other side of the lens, becomes a mirror.
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Recognitions
Tess Senay Raynovich Eco-Art Prize, 2019
Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council Artist Opportunity Grant, 2014
Heinz Endowment Small Arts Initiative Grant, 2012
Best in Show at Three Rivers Arts Festival, 2010
Emerging Artist Scholarship at Three Rivers Arts Festival, 2010
Education
Carnegie Mellon University, BFA in Fine Art with a concentration in Painting/Drawing/Printmaking
Exhibitions and Projects
2022 Season of the Witch, MadKat Studios, Pittsburgh, PA
2021 Flying High, Christine Frechard Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
2019 What Have We Done, Pittsburgh Center for Arts & Media, Pittsburgh, PA
What Deepest Remains, The Brew House, Pittsburgh, PA
Fresh Air: An Ecofuturist Art Exhibit, Rivers of Steel pop-up space, Homestead, PA
Solo Exhibition, Undercroft Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
Wild Things, CDCP Project Space, Wilkinsburg, PA
Tess Senay Eco-Art Prize 2019 Exhibition, Center for Creative Reuse, Pittsburgh, PA
2018 PRINTWORK, Artist Image Resource, Pittsburgh, PA
Natural Homes: Nests, Burrows, Caves, & Trees, View Arts Center, Old Forge, NY
Group A 75th Anniversary Exhibition, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh, PA
On the Wing, The FrameHouse & Jask Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
Under the Blankets, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh, PA
MOTHER, Percolate Gallery, Wilkinsburg, PA
For the Love of Nature, John Hermann Museum, Bellevue, PA
Entangled, Irma Freeman Center for the Imagination, Pittsburgh, PA
IMPRINT, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
2017 Maria Mangano: Prints and Drawings, Sewickley Library, Sewickley, PA
NOW, BoxHeart Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
2016 Once Upon A . . . , Jask Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
2015 Art of the State, State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, PA
No Vacancy: Works by tenants of 201 N. Braddock Ave, The MINE Factory, Pittsburgh, PA
First Impressions, Artist Image Resource, Pittsburgh, PA
Maria Mangano: Prints and Installations, Courthouse Gallery, Lake George, NY
February's artist for the Start With Art: Pittsburgh initiative, Pittsburgh, PA
Scientificous, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
2014 Over the Edge: Paperworks Unbound, Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY
Paper View, Nutting Gallery, West Liberty, WV
Cataloguing Pattern, SPACE Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
57th Chautauqua Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Strohl Art Center, Chautauqua, NY
Juried Visual Art Exhibition at the Three Rivers Arts Festival, Pittsburgh, PA
Wild Things, Sweetwater Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh, PA
2013 Art Car in Pittsburgh’s First Night Parade 2013: Special Delivery, Downtown Pittsburgh, PA
Sustaining Systems: Environmental Artworks @ LOCUS, Locus Art Space, Pittsburgh, PA
2012 A Matter of Convenience, Future Tenant, Pittsburgh, PA
Hibernaculum II, Future Tenant, Pittsburgh, PA
2011 Environmental Aesthetics, Fe Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
Reflections: Homage to Dunkard Creek, Arts Monongahela, Morgantown, WV and other locations
2010 The Forest Through The Trees: Deanna Mance and Maria Mangano, 709 Penn Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
Juried Visual Art Exhibition at the Three Rivers Arts Festival, Pittsburgh, PA
Responding, Future Tenant, Pittsburgh, PA
ˈpā-pər: 5 series by 5 emerging artists in Pittsburgh, The Gallery on Baum, Pittsburgh, PA
2009 Small is the new big: 25 Squared, Fe Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
12 x 12 x 100: 100 Years of the Chautauqua School of Art, Strohl Art Center, Chautauqua, NY
2008 In the Making: 250 Years/250 Artists, Fe Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
Humongulous, Space 101 at the Brew House, Pittsburgh, PA
Festivals and Fairs
Pittsburgh Center for Arts & Media Winter Market, 2023
yArt Sale, 2022
Handmade Arcade, 2016, 2018
Wings & Wildlife Art Show, 2015, 2017
Mattress Factory Pop-up Christmas Art Market, 2015, 2016
Three Rivers Arts Festival, 2010
Press mentions
"Start with Art: PGH giving original art to newborns", NEXTPittsburgh, 1/21/15
"Art Review: Cataloguing Pattern at SPACE", Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 7/31/14
"Arts Festival Juried Visual Art Exhibition reveals rich local scene", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 6/14/14
"Arts Festival's juried exhibit shows richness of works", Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 6/8/14
"2 artists work on the big picture, details in 'The Forest Through the Trees'", Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 12/17/10
Residencies
Chautauqua School of Art, 2008
Bibliography
Errol Fuller, The Passenger Pigeon