Zakarian, the child of survivors of the Armenian genocide, is a native of Philadelphia. She studied at Moore College of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Cheltenham Art Center, and privately with various artists. Her teachers have included Paulette Van Roekens, Leon Sitarchuk, and Paul Gorka.

In 1971, she traveled to the former Soviet Armenia. Her journey served as an inspiration for her highly emotional works, which are characterized by an expressive and bold use of color and form. That same year, she founded the Zakarian School of Art in Philadelphia.

Over the years, Zakarian has been featured on television and in print media, has delivered lectures, and has done portrait demonstrations for various audiences. She has taught hundreds of students, many of whom have gone on to art colleges, in her private studio. People from all over the world have bought Zakarian's paintings, and she was one of seven artists in the United States commissioned to create an artistic representation of the immigrant experience for the 100th Anniversary of the Statue of Liberty.

Zakarian is the subject of a book entitled Out of My Great Sorrows: The Armenian Genocide and Artist Mary Zakarian by Allan Arpajian and Susan Arpajian Jolley, released April 2017 by Routledge Publishers. (Please see the Kirkus Review) The book examines Zakarian's life and art, and in particular studies the effect of genocidal trauma on survivors and their descendants.

*Much of the art on this website was photographed from private collections, and this website is only a small representation of the work the artist has created in her lifetime. If you are in possession of an original, signed Zakarian work and would like to have it included on this website, or if you have any questions about Mary Zakarian's artwork, please submit your inquiries HERE.