Emil DiIorio

Emilio DiIorio has a compassion for humanity that is expressed through his hands.  His experiences a physician, surgeon, and CEO of a healthcare organization, draws a connection with humanity that occurs between his hands and a patient's body. Now,as a full-time artist, the result of that physical connection infuses his artwork when he draws, paints, or sculpts. For DiIorio, scalpel and paintbrush are synonymous; he handles both with equal precision and passion; and with both tools he expertly shapes the human figure.

Emilio DiIorio was born on the Upper East Side of Manhattan to parents of Italian heritage. In the 1960s, he studied engineering at New York University. It was during these years that he was first introduced to painting and sculpture. Engineering school sparked an interest in drawing and design. His skills with graphite developed as he took graphic design in which the expectation was to draw. After graduating with a degree in Engineering, DiIorio spent time as a systems engineer at Grumman Aerospace Corporation. 

During his time at Grumman, DiIorio enrolled in the MBA program at New York University to study economics. It was during this period of social and political unrest in the United States that DiIorio realized his passions no longer lay in engineering or business, but rather in anatomy and art. Soon, he decided to discontinue his career and graduate studies to move overseas. For DiIorio, Europe held a distinctive draw: it would return him to his roots and immerse him in art.

Having been accepted at the University of Ghent to study anatomy, DiIorio studied under anatomist Professor Dr. J. Fautrez. Dr. Fautrez fascinated DiIorio. He told the story of the human body through art. 

DiIorio returned to the US Eastern seaboard to complete his medical degree and trained in Orthopedic surgery at Boston University and the Lahey Clinic.  Afterwards, DiIorio started a hospital network in eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  For nearly 20 years, he would also serve as the Team Physician for Lehigh University’s athletic programs.

As a lifelong student of art history, he has been influenced by artists such as the Italian painter and sculptor Marino Marini who combined the primitive with the present, the self-taught Italian sculptor Giaccomo Manzu, and the great Surrealist sculptor of the twentieth-century figure, the Swiss visionary Alberto Giacometti. 

The diversity of DiIorio’s background having been a physician, surgeon, and CEO of a healthcare organization, combined with his love of art history, have led to his abundant and vibrant studio practice which began over 20 years ago and today is managed by his wife Amanda DiIorio. His work can be seen at www.emiliodiiorio.com.