About the Artist

​

Elizabeth Iorio lives in East Grand Rapids, Michigan with her husband and three children.  Elizabeth grew up in Columbia, South Carolina and pursued art from a young age.  She attended Smith College in Massachusetts where she took studio art classes in painting, drawing, and design.  During her Junior Year in college, she spent the year abroad in Florence, Italy, studying Italian language, art and culture.  While in Italy, she ignited her love of cooking, reinforced her passion for art and architecture and continued to sketch and soak up the beauty around her.  After receiving her B.A. in Art History, Elizabeth moved to Chicago where she interned at the Museum of Contemporary Art as well as a fine art auction house and then worked in a River North art gallery, organizing exhibitions and promoting artists work.   After moving to Michigan in 1998, Elizabeth worked at LaFontsee Galleries in Grand Rapids, again working with artists and exhibitions and enjoying connecting people to art. 

 

For the past several years, Elizabeth has been focusing on her own oil paintings, drawings and pastels.  She has exhibited and sold much of her work at art fairs in Northern Michigan. Her paintings can be found in collections throughout Michigan and across the United States. In Summer 2018, her work was displayed in the Experience Art Rapids! Juried Show in Elk Rapids, MI where her triptych painting received a People’s Choice Award.  In 2019, her work was featured in a three month Guest Artist Series Exhibition at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Rapids, MI. Elizabeth has also exhibited her work in the Festival Regional Arts Exhibition in Grand Rapids for the past four years, winning the Gordy Siggins Memorial Award in 2019. Her painting "Silver Birch, Mackinac Island" was selected for the Juried Exhibition "A Day in the Park" at the The Richard and Jane Manoogian Mackinac Art Museum, Mackinac Island, MI during Summer 2020.

​

​

Artist Statement

 

My love of nature and the outdoors is the root of my paintings.   I enjoy all the seasons and relish getting out to see what is happening outside. Whether it’s the shadows in the snow, or the glow of green fields in the sun, I am constantly enamored with the lights and darks and colors that I see.  In particular, I enjoy studying the reflections in water.  Depending on the day and time, the reflections can be so different.  When I paint, I am not focusing on painting realism, instead I paint the colors and shapes that I see. I am focused on the abstraction yet as I layer these colors, the depth of the scene comes to life and the scenes become quite real.  Because not everything is clearly defined, it allows the viewer to interpret and insert his/her own feelings into the paintings and hopefully transport them to a calm and peaceful place.