mary zio

In her abstract, color-interactive work, Mary Zio occasionally suggests a subject. But more frequently, the North Carolina artist wants her paintings to be open to the viewer’s interpretation.

Artist: Born and raised in Syracuse, NY, Zio said there was never a time that she wasn’t exploring or making art. She graduated from SUNY Purchase in 1989 with a BFA in fine art and a concentration in printmaking and art history.

During college, she worked in the college’s print shop and had a two-year, paid internship with a professional printmaking artist. After college, Zio worked for several printmaking artists and for an art supply company.

But it wasn’t until in 2016, after college and raising a family, that Zio took her art full time and opened Phthalo Blue Art Gallery in Ocean Isle Beach, NC. In 2019, she and her husband relocated to Charlotte area.

Studio: Works out of her new art studio at the couple’s new home in Cramerton. Zio plans on setting up her printing press, alongside of her painting easels, and dive back into printmaking.

Art & materials: Abstract and expressionist paintings on canvas, using all brands of acrylic paints, paint brushes in every size and shape, palette knives, spatulas and lithograph crayons ($200 to $7,000).

Inspirations/influences:

20^th century artists, from Cubism to Minimalism, though a favorite group are Abstract Expressionists of the 1940s to 1960s.
Artist Robert Goodnough. “I am biased,” said Zio. “I own one his paintings.”
Irving Sandler, art critic and historian. Zio took art history classes from him in college.

Special commissions:

24 paintings for 2017 Southern Living Idea Home, on Bald Head Island, NC.
15 paintings for the 2019 Southern Living Inspired Home, also on Bald Head Island.

Recent shows: