Joe Grillo

Joe Grillo (b. 1980 Meteor City, AZ) is an American visual artist based in Virginia Beach, VA.[1] He was briefly a member of the artist collective Paper Rad, before splintering off to found the artist collective Dearraindrop with siblings Laura Grant and Billy Grant in 2003.[2][3][4][5] His graphic work was published in the underground comics newspaper Paper Rodeo[6] and Kramers Ergot.[7][8][9] He has exhibited internationally as a solo artist at Nordiska Akvarellmuseet Museum in Skarhamn,[10] Loyal Gallery in Sweden,[11] and The Hole in New York City.[12]

His artwork has been described by Roberta Smith of The New York Times as "raucous, densely composed works... crowded with apparent pop-culture figures and motifs that are nearly all invented. Rendered in saturated colors outlined in black, they operate in an area bounded by painting, cartooning, graffiti and perhaps video games... a crazed retinal overload tends to distinguish Mr. Grillo’s works from those of his predecessors."[13]

Music has been an important influence on Grillo, and references to rock bands can be found throughout his work.[14] His art has been featured on Bill Callahan's Woke on a Whaleheart[15] and Awesome Color's self titled debut.[16] His record designs for Dearraindrop's Asid Rain[17] and Flaspar's Quadrupletrouble[18] were featured in Taschen's Art Record Covers Book in 2017 alongside record designs by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Damien Hirst.[19][20]