Bobbi Mastrangelo

Avant interviews manhole artist, Bobbi Mastrangelo, who has a decades-long career celebrating the humble manhole cover, advocating for clean water, and envisioning the essential infrastructure we'll need on Mars.

Sculptor and printmaker Bobbi Mastrangelo, also known as the "Grate Lady" has spent her decades-long career creating prints and hyper-realistic sculptures of manhole covers, grates, and drains. Bobbi was a finalist in the 2020 Women in the Arts, Inc. "Celebrating the Genius of Women" Competition and her work has been shown in museums and galleries all over the country.

We find out the answer to the question "Why manhole covers?", learn more about her passionate advocacy for clean water and litter eradication, and go beyond Earth, to her vision for an art institution on Mars and, perhaps unsurprisingly, what its plumbing ought ...