Joe Grillo

Joe Grillo (b. 1980 Meteor City, AZ) is an American visual artist based in Virginia Beach, VA.^[1][2] 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.^[3][4][5][6] His graphic work was first published in the quarterly underground comics newspaper Paper Rodeo^[7] from 2002-2005, as well as in comic anthologies Kramers Ergot^[8][9][10] and Alive Outside.^[11] He has exhibited internationally as a solo artist at Nordiska Akvarellmuseet Museum in Skarhamn,^[12] Loyal Gallery in Sweden,^[13] and The Hole in New York City.^[14]

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."^[15]

Music has been an important influence on Grillo, and references to rock bands can be found throughout his work.^[16] His art has been featured on Bill Callahan's Woke on a Whaleheart^[17] and Awesome Color's self titled debut.^[18] His record designs for Dearraindrop's Asid Rain^[19] and Flaspar's Quadrupletrouble^[20] were featured in Taschen's Art Record Covers Book in 2017 alongside record designs by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Damien Hirst.^[21][22]