Justyn Michael Zolli is an American Visual Artist and a scholar of art history and aesthetics. He is currently based in Northern California.

His work in the Arts ranges across painting, drawing, printmaking, painted murals, architectural stained-glass, and published books of photography; related projects have included lectures, workshop teaching, and restoration projects of historic and religious art.

He has exhibited his creative works in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and contemporary art fairs nationwide, including: Art On Paper Contemporary Art Fair (New York, NY), Texas Contemporary (Houston TX), Seattle Art Fair (Seattle WA), Art Hamptons International Art Fair (Bridge Hampton, NY), ArtMarket SF Contemporary Art Fair, (San Francisco, CA), Williamsburg Art neXus Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), The San Francisco Zen Center (San Francisco, CA), The Midway SF Art Gallery (San Francisco, CA), The SMFA Grossman Gallery (Boston, MA), Eubie Blake Cultural Arts Center (Baltimore, MD), The Blackfriars Gallery at the Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology (Berkeley, CA), the Yosemite Museum (Yosemite, CA), and
The Bank of America building (San Francisco CA). His artwork is held in many private collections nationwide and internationally, and he has completed many commissions for public, religious, and private institutions.

He completed his Art Foundation studies at Rhode Island School of Design, Providence RI. He then attended The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University, completing his BFA degree in 1998. Upon graduation he was awarded the Will Barnet Award in Painting.

In 2014, Justyn traveled extensively throughout India, undertaking independent studies with the renowned artist and academic, Professor Om Prakash Sharma (1932 - 2019), one of India's greatest abstract painters. More recently, in 2020 Justyn began studies at the Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology, Berkeley, where he is presently working towards an M.A.Th degree with a concentration in Aesthetics. In 2021 he was awarded a prestigious Civitas Dei Fellowship by the Thomistic Institute, Catholic University of America, Washington DC.

Presently, he maintains a large art studio in the Benicia Arsenal Arts District in Benicia, CA. He is represented locally by Gallery Century, based in Oakland California, who exhibit his paintings in major contemporary art fair exhibitions in cities nationwide.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2024

• Recent Paintings, Solo Exhibition, Bank of America, San Francisco, CA

• San Francisco Contemporary Art Fair, with Gallery Century

2023

• Inner Shrine, Solo Exhibition, Blackfriars Gallery, Berkeley, CA

• Seattle Art Fair, with Gallery Century

• ArtMarket San Francisco, with Gallery Century

2022

• ArtMarket San Francisco, with Gallery Century

2021

• ArtMarket San Francisco, with Gallery Century

2019

• Temples of Light, Solo Exhibition, 500 Terry Francois, San Francisco

• ArtMarket San Francisco

2018

• ArtMarket San Francisco

2017

• You Are My Lamp, O Lord, Solo Exhibition, Blackfriars Gallery, Berkeley

• Art On Paper, New York City

• ArtMarket San Francisco

2016

• Art On Paper, New York City

• ArtMarket San Francisco

2015

• Art On Paper, New York City

• Timeless Mountains, Endless Sea, Solo Exhibition, San Francisco Zen Center

• ArtMarket San Francisco

2014

• ArtHamptons, The Hamptons, NY

• ArtMarket San Francisco

2013

• Hero Cycle, Solo Exhibition, WAX Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

• Yosemite Renaissance XXVIII, Yosemite Museum, CA

• ArtHamptons, The Hamptons, NY

• ArtMarket San Francisco

RESIDENCIES, AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS

• Finalist, Sacred Art Prize, Catholic Art Institute, 2023

• Artist-in-Residence, The Midway SF, 2016

• Civitas Dei Fellowship, Catholic University of America

• Will and Elena Barnet Painting Award, SMFA Boston

• Stephen Bridges Memorial Scholarship, SGAA

SELECTED COMMISSIONS & PROJECTS

• Altar Mural, St. Dominic’s Church, Benicia, CA

• Wall Murals, Our Lady of Fatima Russian Byzantine Church, San Francisco

• Muralist, U.S. National Park Service, SF Maritime National Park

• Co-curator, Tree of Life Exhibition, Blackfriars Gallery

• Co-organizer, Om Prakash: Intuitive Nature, Marin Community Foundation

EDUCATION

• MA Theology (Aesthetics focus), Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology (in progress)

• BFA, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston / Tufts University

• Apprenticeship in Traditional Stained Glass, Burnham & LaRoche Studios

• Printmaking Studies, Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco

• Independent Study in Indian Art & Architecture

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

• Teaching Artist, Esalen Institute, Big Sur, CA (2014–2016)

• Instructor, Diablo Glass & Metal, Boston, MA

• Drawing Instructor, 1027 Grand Street Studio, New York, NY

PUBLICATIONS

• ATLAS: Visual Studies in Aesthetic and Compositional Correspondences (Volumes I–III)

• Wonderland: Images from Joshua Tree National Park

• Justyn Zolli: The NY Sketchbooks

• Abstraction and Architecture, Interview with The Inquisitr (2017)

Painting is an action. Painting is also a visual experience.
In this, Painting can act either as window or wall.

When looked at like a wall, Painting rests on the surface. It refers ultimately to nothing but itself as Painting. Painting therefore accesses only itself, and ultimately does not present anything but itself as Painting. It is looked at.
All contents within such paintings do not truly refer to anything but the painting itself. Such Painting speaks of nothing but itself as Painting, as surface, form, color, as the very stuff of Painting. It signifies nothing but itself, and only itself. Our joy is in its materiality, opticality, and object-hood.

Yet, it may point past itself, presenting a view into something imagined. When a Painting is looked into, like an imaginative window, it reveals and fixes the absence of its subject; we are re-minded of that person, place, dream, of that which is not truly present. The painting acts as recollection, an effigy of reality, a memorial. It becomes a vehicle of re-assemblance for us, and a calling back from the void. Such Painting disappears into the infinite absence of its subject, revealing only a relic in our memory or else a prophecy and a hope. The subject is not here; Here is only us and this painted image. Our joy is in its meaning, reference, and subjectity.

When looked into, Painting reveals an opening to the world.
When looked at, Painting revels in the surfaces of the world.
The very best kind of Painting unites the objecthood of the material and the idea of the artist, oscillating between both modes, creating both tension and pleasure in one’s vision.

The real point of Painting as a spiritual discipline is to reveal our vision to ourselves, to make vision visible, imaginatively and tangibly as one. And then share that with others.
In always seeking that which is just beyond form, in seeking to touch the Spirit, the true artist attempts to wield matter to penetrate the visibility of his own vision; pointing the burning spear-tip of their creativity at the ungraspable idea. For with every gesture of the brush, one is also faced with an infinite withdrawal into the particular, into forms, into act, into Painting itself.