Joe Mangrum

About

Joe Mangrum was born in Florissant Missouri. At the age of 16 he was awarded a trip to India sponsored by the Asia Society of New York 1986. After completing his BFA with a focus on painting and photography from the School of the Art institute of Chicago in 1991 he traveled for many years before making his home in San Francisco. His first solo exhibition was at San Francisco State University in 1995, titled “Hypothesis”.

Joe uses a variety of materials in his work creating 4 dimensional experiences with everyday objects including auto parts, computer parts, food, money, bullets, flowers, fire and glass. His most recent medium of choice is colored sand.

His work has been exhibited worldwide. In 2003 Joe was awarded the Lorenzo de Medici Award in new media at the Florence Biennale. He has held residencies at the de Young Museum of San Francisco 2007 and Red Gate Gallery in Beijing 2008 where he was featured in the inaugural exhibit of the Sunshine Museum of Beijing. He has received commissions from the City of San Francisco 1998 & 2000 as well as Coachella 2001 2003 and numerous other festivals. He is an active supporter of environmental causes and has contributed efforts for Riverkeeper Alliance, Natural World Museum, World Environment Day and Copenhagen 15 among many. His work has been featured on the PBS program “Spark” on KQED in San Francisco 2006.  He has also worked with educational programs at the de Young Museum 2007, Oakland Public Schools 2005 and the United Nations International School 2009.

He is presently creating a series of sand paintings in the streets of New York City amassing over 230 paintings for which he has been featured on CNN and The New York Times, Yahoo News, and numerous blogs and international television coverage. Joe’s work has engaged the public directly in the streets of Manhattan pouring sand through his hands for all to observe.  A recent sand Runway for Fashion Week in NYC landed him in the pages of Vogue, Modelinia and Vanity Fair. Three documentary film shorts have been produced and Joe has published a book titled “Painting New York ….with sand” which chronicles the first 41 paintings. He is currently working on a series of prints and wall hung artworks bringing his sand paintings to a more permanent state and exploring mediums of glass, terrazzo and even custom carpets. He lives and works in New York City.

b. 1969 Florissant MO

Resides New York, NY

(917) 348-4474