Mary Pinto

Mary Pinto was born and raised in the Philadelphia area. She later lived in Spain for over fifteen years, where she studied photography and taught English. After earning her M.F.A. from Bard College, she moved to New York City and currently resides and works in Sunnyside, Queens. Mary has received three grants in recent years for the creation of new work: from the Queens Council on the Arts in 2019 and 2021, and from the Queens Art Fund in 2025. As a curator, she has organized several exhibits, including a permanent installation of the work of 19 artists at the Fortune Society in L.I.C. through Art Connects New York. Mary has attended residencies at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts and the Openings Collective at Lake George.

Working with conventional and alternative photographic processes, as well as monotype, collage and artist books, Mary makes works on paper that explore themes of wonder and comment on the connection between humans and the natural world. She is influenced by environmental writers who emphasize the intelligence of plants as subjects rather than objects, and who urge a reconsideration of our relationship with nature.