About

STATEMENT
​I create places of happiness. Landscapes full of delicious color, long expanses, odd quirky shapes, and patterns suggesting the unknown. 

Slick, transparent  polyester film and acrylic paint are my materials of choice. Painting on an uneven work table allows the paint to slip and shift, creating  slurries of bold color. These slurries create lines and wave patterns.  By layering multiple pieces and cutting along lines, I'm able to identify shapes that become  elements in my collage. All these pieces come together to create a story.

I view my paintings and ceramics as sculpture. Both take their form from the inherent quality of the materials. While the paintings are flat reliefs, the ceramics take advantage of clay's malleability to be  bulbous, and 3D.

​Life can be heartbreaking. My spontaneous way of working mimics the full spectrum of human experiences. My intention is to reshape those encounters into spaces of absurdity and exuberance. These aren't  linear moments, but an abstracted experience you can’t quite define.
BIO

​Mary Zeran (b. 1964, Iowa City, IA) creates places of happiness. Abstract landscapes full of delicious color, long expanses, odd quirky shapes, and patterns suggesting the unknown.

The artist holds a B.F.A. and M.F.A in art from University of Iowa. Zeran’s collage are shown internationally, with exhibitions at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IA, SOIL Gallery, Seattle, WA, and Chiang Mai University in Chiang Mai, Thailand.  

Her work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IA, U.S. Cellular Center, Cedar Rapids, IA, Harvard Business College, Boston, MA, and United Fire Group, Los Angeles, CA. Artist Residencies, and public commissions include Oregon College of Arts and Crafts Residency, and a 2% for the Arts Purchase Prize from the Visual Arts Commission in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Her work is included in the book "Chunghi Choo and Her Students", published by Arnoldsche, Stuttgart, Germany, The New Art Examiner, and Artweek, Seattle, WA.

​Zeran currently lives and works in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.