Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 18, 2026

Joe Grillo

Joe Grillo is an American visual artist based in Virginia Beach, VA. 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. His graphic work was first published in the quarterly underground comics newspaper Paper Rodeo from 2002-2005, as well as in comic anthologies Kramers Ergot and Alive Outside. He has exhibited internationally as a solo artist at Nordiska Akvarellmuseet Museum in Skarhamn, Loyal Gallery in Sweden, and The Hole in New York City.

Last revised
Jul 18, 2026
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Joe Grillo (b. 1980 Meteor City, AZ) is an American visual artist based in Virginia Beach, VA.12 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 2003.3456 His graphic work was first published in the quarterly underground comics newspaper Paper Rodeo7 from 2002-2005, as well as in comic anthologies Kramers Ergot8910 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 Whaleheart17 and Awesome Color's self titled debut.18 His record designs for Dearraindrop's Asid Rain19 and Flaspar's Quadrupletrouble20 were featured in Taschen's Art Record Covers Book in 2017 alongside record designs by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Damien Hirst.2122

Selected work

Music

  • Dearraindrop: Asid Rain (2005)23
  • Dearraindrop: (Spinning Silver) Sarcophagus (2006)24

Books

  • Kramers Ergot 3 (Avodah Books, 2002)
  • Kramers Ergot 4 (Avodah Books, 2003)
  • Joe Grillo: #%@&?!!! (The Hole, 2015)
  • Joe Grillo: Acid American (Cellar Contemporary, 2016)
  • Joe Grillo: Miles of Slime and Smiles (Neoglyphic Media, 2023)
  • ALIVE OUTSIDE (Neoglyphic Media, 2024)
References

References

  1. Toomral, Michael (2016). Joe Grillo: Acid American. Trento, Italy: Cellar Contemporary.
  2. Furgal, Ben (2023). Joe Grillo : Miles of Slime and Smiles. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Neoglyphic Media. ISBN 9780988535428.
  3. "'An Oasis, a Utopia, and a Nightmare'". Rhizome. 14 August 2018. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  4. Cotter, Holland (2003-01-19). "Doing Their Own Thing, Making Art Together". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  5. Grayson, Kathy (2015). Joe Grillo: #%@&?!!!. Canada: Anteism.
  6. Smith, Nancy (2023-08-01). "Art Lovers New York: Trippin' Down Memory Lane with Billy Grant". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2025-12-22.
  7. English, Austin (2017-11-20). "Feininger's Grandkids". The Comics Journal. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  8. McCulloch, Joe (2012-02-28). "This Week in Comics!". The Comics Journal. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  9. Harkham, Sammy (2002). Kramer's Ergot 3. Canada: Avodah Books. ISBN 0967798930.
  10. Harkham, Sammy (2003). Kramer's Ergot 4. Avodah Books. ISBN 0967798957.
  11. O'Neil, Tegan (2025-05-06). "Alive Outside". The Comics Journal. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
  12. "Joe Grillo". Nordiska Akvarellmuseet. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  13. Lilja, Martin. "Loyal, Extrabreit". Loyal Gallery. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  14. "The Hole NYC » Joe Grillo #%@&?!!!". Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  15. Smith, Roberta (2015-11-19). "Joe Grillo and Zane Lewis in Separate Shows at the Hole". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  16. Gupta, Kavi (2005). Dearraindrop: Magic Brain. Italy: Petra. p. 56. ISBN 8887327114.
  17. Bill Callahan - Woke On A Whaleheart, retrieved 2022-02-20
  18. Awesome Color - Awesome Color, retrieved 2022-02-20
  19. Dearraindrop As The Bubblegum Phoenix - Asid Rain, retrieved 2022-02-20
  20. Flaspar - Quadrupletrouble, retrieved 2022-02-20
  21. Cellar. "Joe Grillo on Art Record Covers By Taschen". www.cellarcontemporary.com. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  22. Spampinato, Francesco (2017). Art Record Covers. Cologne: Taschen. ISBN 978-3836540292.
  23. "Dearraindrop As The Bubblegum Phoenix* – Asid Rain". Discogs.com. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  24. "Dearraindrop, Bug Sized Mind, Blast City, Dave Public: SS Sarcophagus". Discogs.com. Retrieved 2023-03-07.