Co-Founder and Mentor

Dan Zollinger is an award-winning illustrator and painter. Born in Glens Falls, New York, and raised in Schenectady, N.Y., he later earned his degree in art from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.

Zollinger brings a wealth of experience from a plethora of art genres, working at a professional level as an advertising storyboard artist, scenic artist, print graphic artist, editorial illustrator, book illustrator, graphic novelist and gallery artist. He is noted for his digital painting, having been featured and commissioned by the wonderful people at Procreate. He has also been invited to test several pre-release versions of the popular digital painting app.

Zollinger previously co-founded, ”Acme Illustrators” alongside Anthony Freda. The pair’s editorial illustration work was featured in numerous publications such as the New York Times, Esquire, Washington Post, Playboy, Business Week, and Rolling Stone magazine amongst many others. Their work was selected several times for best in American Illustration in juried competitions by publications such as AI-AP annual and Communication Arts annual.

Over the last several years, Zollinger has been creating book and graphic novel art. He illustrated the entire book, “The Lives of Saints” for author Leigh Bardugo, the book subsequently hitting the New York Times best seller list. A piece from the book was selected in the juried AI-AP illustration annual competition, being recognized for outstanding work of the year in illustration. Another piece created for the No+cancer virtual art show in Spain benefitting cancer research was included in the AI-AP print publication of the annual.

Zollinger’s paintings have been exhibited in numerous one-man and group shows for Star Gallery, Helikon Gallery, and BJS Artworks (where he was artist-in-residence) and can be found in numerous private collections internationally.

Dan’s digital and oil paintings have appeared twice in the prominent contemporary art publication, “Beautiful Bizarre Magazine”. His latest appearance being a two page feature interview in issue 40.

He is currently completing the soon to be released graphic novel “Made Men or once upon a time…in the mafia” written by noted author Doug Brode and published by McFarland & Company Publishing.

Dan Zollinger Website

Instagram Dan Zollinger

“ I remember traveling through Great Britain many years ago and feeling as though it was a religious experience. I wasn’t raised to believe in a god, but the open-mindedness that my parents cultivated within me actually helped me to recognize that there are many magical things at play, and a great many of them truly defy logic.

I tend to believe in many things that I can’t see or even prove. Gazing at Dan Zollinger’s “ORACLE” summons the sensation I have while inhaling the mentholated air in a dense forest. That long, hanging W O W w w w followed by a mystically mighty reverence.

Astounding talent aside, surely Dan is channeling super-charged mystical sprite particles through his painterly hands. “

Elizah Leigh - Staff Writer and Social Media Manager for Beautiful Bizarre Magazine

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“Every artist driven by a vision must one day make a leap of faith. The artist must face his or her work and say, “No more is needed. This work expresses the vision.” The artist sees the work from the inside; the artist knows the vision. So in a sense, the artist can never know the work. He or she can never really know if the vision inheres, in the end, in the work. And yet, without the leap of faith, the work will always cringe and mumble and seek to explain. It cannot trumpet. It cannot soar.

Dan Zollinger is an artist with a vision who has made his leap of faith. From the explicable, the orderly, and the complete, he has passed, as if through a shimmering curtain, into a world of gold and shadows, of whispers and portents; a romantic landscape peopled by heroes, saints, and martyrs. Moving easily between oil paints and digital media, he creates stippled spaces and colors that echo the Symbolists, especially Gustav Moreau. But he deploys his own set of images and narratives, with a combination of sensitivity to his subjects and confidence in his idiom. The force of his faith in his work allows us to escape the everyday and participate in his world of high drama, of rich pageantry, of grief and revelation and love.

Looking at his work is like stepping into the lair of a magician. One feels a tremor of fear, and then one crosses the threshold, and every single thing comes to breathtaking life.”

— Daniel Maidman - Artist, Author, Critic. Maidman's writing on technique has appeared at Artist Daily and been extensively published in International Artist. His criticism and general art writing appears regularly at The Huffington Post. His writing and thoughts on art have also appeared in ARTnews, Whitehot Magazine, and MAKE Literary Magazine. His writing on Da Vinci was taught at DePaul University and Roosevelt University in 2012. In 2013, he was invited to moderate the graduating fellows panel at the New York Academy of Art.