Maritima Artist Residency Participants:

Mara G. Haseltine

Mara G. Haseltine (USA, France) is an international artist who works in different media such as large scale sculpture, video, installation, photo, drawing. She is a pioneer in the field of SciArt, and an environmental activist and educator.

Haseltine frequently collaborates with scientists and engineers to create work that addresses the link to between our cultural and biological evolution.  Her work takes place in the studio lab and field infusing scientific inquiry with poetry.

As a young artist she worked for the French American artist Nicki de saint Phalle laying mosaics at her monumental Tarot Garden in Tuscany, Italy as well as with the Smithsonian Museum in conjunction with National Museum of Trinidad and Tabago in Port of Spain Trinidad.  

Mara G. Haseltine was awarded the honor of designing the installation located in the Epi-Center of Singapore’s Biotech mecca Biopolis, which was designed by architect Zaha Hadid. SARS (2006) was to create an outsized bronze sculpture for outdoors depicting the functions of the SARS Protease Inhibitor, which was discovered by an international team of scientists working at Biopolis. 

In 2007, Haseltine created New York City’s first solar-powered oyster reef. She has since devoted her attention to exploring the most efficient and beautiful designs to create oyster and coral reefs. These reefs filter water, create habitats for other organisms, and form reef breaks along coast lines. In 2011, Haseltine was an artist-in-residence at Unviversity College of Dublin in Ireland and Tara Oceans. She was awarded Flag 75 from the Explorer’s Club for her three-year voyage around the world studying the ocean’s relationship to climate change. Her current body of work combines microscopy and reef design of microscopic oceanic life forms.

She has exhibited and worked throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and at the National Museum of Trinidad and Tobago in the Port of Spain, Trinidad. She has taught at The New School in NYC, and she is a member of both the Sculptors Guild of NYC as well as the Explorer’s Club. She works out of Brooklyn, New York. Her work has been published in The Times, Le Metro, The Guardian, and Architectural Record etc…