Mary Coss is a Seattle-based interdisciplinary artist known for large-scale sculptures and multimedia installations that explore culture, identity, and social justice through allegory. Born in Detroit, she holds an MFA from Syracuse University’s Experimental Studios—a hybrid sculpture and media program—with a minor in sociology, shaping her socially engaged, research-driven practice.
Her work reimagines familiar imagery to examine the human condition, using materials such as wire, castings, fabric, and digital media. Coss has exhibited nationally and internationally in museums, galleries, and sculpture parks, and has received awards and grants from the NEA, Ford and Puffin Foundations, 4Culture, Seattle Arts & Culture, SOLA, and Artist Trust.
Major works include Public debt to the Suffragette (ACLU “Art to Change the World” award) and Layers of the Hijab, a three-year NEA-funded engagement project. Her public art spans large commissions and collaborations, notably Ghostlog on the Tacoma waterfront, created with the Puyallup Tribe and featuring Indigenous language, traditional craft, a sound piece, and podcast series. Her extensive work in affordable housing combines site-designed artwork, lead artist coordination, and art plan authorship. Contributions to the Greenbridge Master Plan garnered four local and national design awards.
Her international practice includes exhibitions and residencies in Sweden, Italy, Ireland, Turkey, Guatemala, and across the U.S. She has participated in residencies at Willapa Bay, GoodHart, Playa, the James Washington Foundation, Cornish Incubator, Cill Rialaig, and Greywood Arts.
As a dedicated cultural worker, Mary mentors, teaches, curates, and has co-founded several institutions including METHOD Gallery in Seattle.
Sound Video Public Art Archive
A Cross Generational Talk on the Creative Process w/ Daughter and musician Roxy Coss
Silent Salinity article in The Stranger