ESTHER GRillo
ARTIST BIO
Permanent Public Art
Channel View School for Research, In Search of Harmony Bay, relief, Rockaway, NY 2012
9/11 Roxbury Memorial Park, sculpture, collaboration with Patrick Clark, Roxbury, NY 2006
NYC Parks, Art in the Parks, The Monarch Landscape, mural, Rockaway, NY 2002
NYC Parks, Art in the Parks, The Deep, mural, Rockaway Park, NY 2000
NYC Parks, Art in the Parks, Surf’s Up, mural, Rockaway Park, NY 1999-2019
NYC Parks, Art in the Parks, Mythical Cavern, mural, Rockaway Park, NY 1998
Howard Bch./JFK Station, In Search of Harmony Bay, MTA/Creative Stations, NY 1992-2000
Solo Exhibitions
Gruss Center of Visual Arts, Sculpture, Installations, Prints, Lawrenceville School, NJ 2001
14 Sculptors Gallery, Inc., The Fallen, NYC 1990
Payne Gallery, Esther Grillo: Her Psyche, Moravian College, PA 1990
Palmer Museum, Meltdown, Pennsylvania State University, PA 1988
14 Sculptors Gallery, Inc., Esther Grillo: Installation, Sculpture, Collage, Prints, NYC 1988
14 Sculptors Gallery, Narrative Sculpture: Collage and Prints, NYC 1986
14 Sculptors Gallery, The Ambiguous Sculptural Image, NYC 1983
Selected Group Exhibitions
Asarian McCullough Art Gallery, Anomaly, St. Thomas Aquinas College, Sparkill, NY 2022
Gallery GAIA, Democracy Now!, 79 Hudson Avenue, Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn, NY 2022
Sculpture for Leonia, Chasing Nature, Leonia, NY 2021-2023
Tilly-Forster Farms, Brewster, Full Bloom, Brewster, NY 2021
Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden, North Salem, NY 2019, 2021
Florida International University, Urban Studies, Translator's Notes, Miami Beach, FL 2020
Asarian McCullough Art Gallery, Planet in Crisis, St. Thomas Aquinas Coll., Sparkill, NY 2019
Museum of the City of New York, Art in the Open: Fifty Years of Public Art in NY 2017-2018
NYC Parks, Art in the Parks, On the Rock: An Exhibition of Sculpture, Rockaway, NY 2017
Akin Library & Museum, 6th Annual Exhibit 2016, Pawling, NY 2016
Rockaway Artists Alliance, T-7, ArtSplash, Gateway National Recreation Area, NY 2009-2017
High Bridge Park, Art in the Parks, OH SIT, NYC Parks, NYC 2015
East River Park, BWAC 30th Ann. Outdoor Sculpture Show, Perpetual Energy, B'klyn, NY 2012
Governors Island Art Fair 2011, sponsored by 4Heads, Self-Portraits, Governors Is., NY, 2011
Xavier University, Sculpture for New Orleans, New Orleans, LO 2008 -to the present
Salem Art Park, Salem Art Works: Outdoor Sculpture, Salem, NY 2007-2010
Jersey City University, Speaking to Power, Jersey City, NJ 2007-2008
Brooklyn College Museum, Alumni Exhibit: Celebrating 75th Anniv. B'klyn College, NY 2005
Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (BWAC), Water Show, Brooklyn, NY 2004
Empire State Park, Over the Rainbow, Fulton Ferry, Brooklyn, NY 2002-2003 traveled to
McLevy Park, Bridgeport, CT 2004-2005
T-7 Gallery, Rockaway Artists' Alliance, G N R Area, Fort Tilden, NY 2001, 2003, 2013, 2014
Flushing Meadow Park, Urban Air Forms: Outdoor and Indoor Sculpture, Queens, NY 2002 Rockaway Museum, Rockaway Tribute Park 9/11 Model Exhibition, Rockaway, NY 2002
Arsenal Gallery, Women’s Works:...of Public Artists in NYC Parks, 1967-2001, NYC 2001
Empire State Park, Renewal/Change, 19th Annual Outdoor Sculpture Show, Brooklyn, NY 2001
Firehouse Gallery, Nassau Com. College, The Raw and The Cooked, Long Island, NY 1997
University College Art Gallery, Women’s Portfolio..., Fairleigh Dickenson University, NJ 1994
Windows Exhibition Space, Choice? Choice!, DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY 1992
Loft Gallery Space, From the Streets of NY, Ikebukuro, Japan. Curator: Barbara Kramer 1991
Queens Museums, Juried Annual ’87, Queens, NY 1987
Islip Art Museum, Long Island Artists, juried exhibition, East Islip, NY 1985
Queens Borough Community College, Holocaust Memorial Art Exhibition, NY 1985
Pleiades Gallery, Past/Post/Future, New York, NY. Curator: Robert Atkins 1985
The Rotunda Gallery, Earth Transformed by Fire: Ceramic Sculpture, Brooklyn, NY 1985
MoMA PS1, Wild Art, Room 209, Brooklyn, NY. Curator: Faith Ringgold 1982
Grants, Awards, Scholarships
NY Foundation for the Arts Sandy Relief Fund, New York, NY 2013
9/11 Roxbury Memorial Park Sculpture Competition, finalist 2004
Precita Eyes National Mural Award, San Francisco, CA 2005
Mural Grant, Rockaway Chamber of Commerce, Rockaway, NY 2000
City Parks Foundation Grant, New York, NY 1999
Queens Community Arts Fund, Queens, NY 1997
MTA/Creative Stations Grant, relief sculpture at Howard Beach/JFK platform, Queens, NY 1992
Artist Space Grant, artist support, The Gas Station, curator: Ursula Clark, 2nd Avenue, NYC 1990
Betty Brazil Memorial Fund, grant finalist 1982
Brooklyn College Graduate Fellowship Award for Sculpture, Brooklyn College, B'klyn, NY 1981
Public Collections:
Department of Education Art Collection, New York, NY
Brooklyn College Art Collection, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY
Payne Gallery, Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA
Palmer Museum, Pennsylvania State University, PA
United Federation of Teachers, New York, NY
New York City Art Teachers Association/United Federation of Teachers (NYCATA/UFT)
Brooklyn Council for the Arts, Brooklyn, NY
Selected Books
Public Art IV, Cheryl Scanlan, self-published, pgs. 23, 24, 32, Rockaway, NY, illustration, 2020
Public Art, Cheryl Scanlan, self-published, pg. 3, Rockaway, NY, illustrations, 2019
Glory Be, Bruce Weber, Little Bar Press, NYC, illustration 2017
On the Wall, Four Decades of Community Murals in NYC, illustration 2008
Best of New York: Impressions in Continuity, First Edition, Sorrell Communications, Inc 2002
Performing Pedagogy: Toward Art of Politics, by Charles R. Garoian, SUNY Press 9/30/1999
Sculpting Clay, by Leon I. Nigrosh, p.6, illustration 1991
Park Lane South, Queens, novel, Mary Ann Kelly, St. Martin’s Press, 1990
Selected Reviews /Publications
Kerry Martha, An Art-Inspired Life, The Wave, Wavemakers, 7/10/2020, p. 14
Katie Honan, "Surf's Up" Bus Shelter Artist Heartbroken...",Block Club Chicago 2015
Jerome L. Sherman, Her Art Is New Wave, Newsday, 6/10/2003, p. A55
Lisa L. Colangelo, New Life for Bus Shelter, Daily News, Your NBHD, 9/23/1999, p. QLI 1
Queens Council on the Arts, Surf’s Up Mural, Guide to the Arts & Entmts., Events, 9/23/99
Vivian Raynor, Motherhood & Other “New Metaphors", The New York Times, 7/16/1995
It’s a Big Pond, and We’re All Part of It, The New York Times, Home Section, October 22, 1992
Esther Grillo, Fantasied Garden Revealed, Ceramics Monthly, magazine, 12/ 1988, p. 64 & 66
Esther Grillo, Meltdown, Ceramic Monthly, magazine, Vol. 35, No. 1, 1/ 1987, pp. 34-35
Prakash and Shaman, Long-Range Planning for Museums: Promoting Public Escapism or Educating for Public Responsibility? The Museologist, journal, Vol. 51, N. 176, pp. 11-15, 1987
Susan Koslow, Esther Grillo, Arts Magazine, magazine, Vol. 61, No. 1, 9/ 1986, p. 112
Ruth Butler, Esther A. Grillo, Ceramics Monthly, magazine, 12/1983
Selected Lectures /Media
IndieFilm, Night Comes On, NCO Film, Inc., (Surf's Up mural), 2018
NY 1 News, TV interview, On the Rock 2017: An Exhibition of Sculpture, 6/2/2017
1010 WINS radio news, interview, Surf's Up, mural, 3/4/2015
Vivian Carter, Oy Vey Rockaway, rocviv blog, Inspired by "The Search for Harmony Bay" 2011
NY 1 News, TV interview, Guardians of the Sea and Riders of the Wave, 9/5/2011
NY 1 News, TV, interview, InkSplash 2011, 10/10/2011
Sony Pictures TV Inc., Rescue me, series, Season 1, episode 5, 2004
Lawrenceville School, lecture, How has science affected Esther Grillo’s Art?, NJ 10/ 2001
Palmer Museum, lecture, The Nuc. Energy Symp., Nuc.-Reactions, Penn State Univ., PA 1989
NY 1 Cable: “Artists from the Rockaways”,1998
Panelist
Rockaway Water Association, NEA Grants, Far Rockaway, NY 2016
Rockaway Artists Alliance NEA grant for Forbidden Fruit, Street Art in a National Park, NY 2016
Queens Council for the Arts, Queens, NY 1998, 1999
Penn State University, Nuclear Energy Symposium, PA 1988
Penn State University, Pittsburg, Art for Social Change, Panel Chair 1989
Arts Organization Participation
14 Sculptors Inc., Vice President, New York, NY 2003-present
Rockaway Artists Alliance, Director, Rockaway, NY 1999-2001
Education
MFA, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY, Cum Laude 1981
BFA, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY 1977
undergraduate, Queens College, 1973-4
Born
Scauri, Italy 1954
www.14sculptors.com esthergrillo@aol.com @esthergrillo cell: 646 346-0951