Kurt Pio was born in Cape Town in 1977. He completed his national diploma in Interior Design at Cape Peninsula University of Technology and had a brief stint in the industry. He then went freelance, assisting the decor editor at VISI Magazine. Thereafter he pursued his painting career and currently works full time in his studio in Cape Town’s CBD.

In 2008 he completed a millinery course at Central Saint Martins Collage in London and in addition to painting, designs his own range of hats. Kurt was a finalist in the Spier Contemporary 2010, South Africa. In May 2011 Kurt moved to Amsterdam and completed a three-month Artist in Residency program with Open Ateliers Zuid Oost. Since then, Kurt has explored a variety of techniques and themes in the visual arts. He was selected to feature at the 2013 Turbine Art Fair in Johannesburg, the edit[ed] shop for Wanted Magazine, in the Taj Hotel, four solo exhibitions, one at the trending Woodstock Exchange, one as the opening artist at the brand new Smith Gallery in Cape Town. International Trend forecaster, Lidewij Edelkoort snapped up one of his artworks at Smith and installed it in her curated show titled Fetishism, at the Trapholt Museum of Modern Art in Kolding, Denmark. He went on to be the opening artist for the brand new Studio Dylan Thomaz in Cape Town. He has received considerable coverage in prominent local interior and lifestyle magazines for the past nine years.