Antonietta Grassi is a contemporary Canadian artist based in Montreal, Quebec. She is known for her geometric abstract paintings which reference textiles, architecture, analog technologies and the history of 20th century painting.[1] Her work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries in Canada, the United States, and in Europe [2]
Antonietta Grassi was born in Montreal, Canada in 1965 and is of Italian ancestry.[3] Grassi's mother and aunts worked in the textile factories doing piece work when they immigrated to Montreal from Italy in the late fifties.[4]
After graduating with a diploma in design from Ryerson University in 1987, she began her career as a designer and color researcher in the textile and fashion industries in Montreal.[5]
Art career
Grassi enrolled part time at Concordia University in the early nineties. She studied there under abstract painter Yves Gaucher who was an important mentor. Grassi was included in the 2002 exhibition at Concordia University's Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery entitled Yves Gaucher, which included works by Gaucher and "...brings together the works of ten artists who have worked with Yves in one way or another and have acknowledged the significance of the encounter. Most were students of his at Concordia, and each one provides a different perspective. Antonietta Grassi (BFA 1994) and Brigitte Radecki (BFA 1978) cite Yves as an important mentor as they attempt to both embrace and critique the language of formalism."[6][7] She obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1994, after which she left the fashion industry to dedicate herself full time to her art career. She received a MFA from the Université du Québec à Montréal in 1997.[8] Upon graduating, Grassi exhibited in numerous group and solo shows.
Grassi was part of two large multi-gallery painting shows in Montreal put on by the Association de galeries d’art contemporain: Peinture Peinture (1998)[9] and Pictura: Painting in Montréal’s Image[10] (2020). She was part of the 2021 Symposium de Baie-Saint-Paul,[citation needed] and one of a dozen artists in the Future in Mind exhibition in the Canadian Pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai.[11] She has had solo shows of her painting series in her commercial galleries and in public art spaces, including:
Le projet cicatrice (partie 1) (Centre Clark, Montréal, 1997[12])
Scar Calendar (UNIT/PITT, formerly the Helen Pitt Gallery, Vancouver, 1997[13])
Babble (and other coded language) (Galerie Lilian Rodriguez, Montréal, 2002[14])
Lifelines (Patrick Mikhail Gallery, 2020 and Ottawa City Hall Art Gallery, 2021 [19])
Zip Stack Flow (Patrick Mikhail Gallery, 2022[20][21])
She was part of the stable of artists at a number of commercial galleries including Galerie Lilian Rodriquez[22] in Montréal. Since 2017, she is exclusively represented by Patrick Mikhail Gallery,[23] Montréal. Grassi has been a professor in the Visual Arts department at Dawson College[24] since 1998.
Art practice
Grassi's work draws from the history of 20th century abstraction. Her use of color has been compared to that of the early American abstract expressionist painter Helen Frankenthaler, and her interest in hand-drawn grids compared to Canadian-born American minimalist painter Agnes Martin.[25][26] Grassi prefers to paint on raw linen or canvas using acrylic and oil paints. She builds up multi-layered surfaces of paint that are intersected by thread-like lines.[27] Her paintings have been likened to geometric poems, woven with threads that connect early computer coding and textiles with personal and collective memory.[28] Starting in 2018, Grassi became interested in the link between woven textiles and computers when she learned that the Jacquard loom (1804) had inspired the Analytical Engine, an 1837 mechanical-computing device invented by English mathematicians Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace. These ideas affected the imagery and painting techniques that dominated the subsequent body of her artwork.[29][30][31] They also lead the artist to pay homage to the contributions of women computer scientists and mathematicians, such as Lovelace and Grace Hopper, by referring directly to their names or to their discoveries in her paintings’ titles (ex. ADA, 2019, Break Point, 2019, FlowMatic, 2019, Compiler, 2020).[32]
↑ "Antonietta Grassi - Contemplation for Obsolete Objects: Postscript". gallerieswest. Galleries West. January 11, 2019. Retrieved May 29, 2023. Grassi has been committed to the practice of abstract painting for most of her career. Grassi paints layered, intuitively derived forms that are intersected by fine, thread-like lines—creating works where textile, architecture, analog technologies, and painting's twentieth century history collide.
↑ "Antonietta Grassi - Contemplation for Obsolete Objects: Postscript". gallerieswest. Galleries West. January 11, 2019. Retrieved May 29, 2023. Antonietta Grassi's paintings and works on paper have been featured in solo and group exhibitions at museums and galleries in Canada, the United States, and in Europe, including Muséé National des Beaux-Arts du Quebec; Museo Civico di Molise in Casacalende, Italy; Kunstwerk Calshutte in Budelsdorf, Germany; the Boston Center for the Arts, Vermont Institute of Contemporary Arts in Chester; Trestle Gallery and Crossing Art in New York; Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio; the Bruce Lurie Gallery in Los Angeles; the McClure Gallery, Galerie Stewart Hall Art, Lilian Rodriguez, the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery and the Patrick Mikhail Gallery in Montreal, Newzones in Calgary, and the Leo Kamen, Artcore and John B. Aird Gallery in Toronto. In addition, her work is in public, corporate, and private collections, including the Musée National des Beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ), the Archives of Ontario, Museo Civico Di Molise, the Boston Public Library, Yamana Gold in Toronto, and the Stewart Hall Museum in Pointe Claire.
↑ Mattera, Joanne (n.d.). "Antonietta Grassi: An Interesting and Complicated Sense of Identity (interview)". Italianità: Contemporary Art Inspired by the Italian Immigrant Experience. italianita-art.com. Retrieved December 12, 2022. I grew up in an Italian Canadian community in Montreal. My parents, like many of the other Italian immigrants in the community, spoke their language with everyone, including local shopkeepers, because they were Italian as well... If I had to label it, I would say I am an Italian Canadian from Quebec. I grew up very strongly connected to my parents' Italian roots and was expected to uphold many of their customs.
↑ Beattie, Amanda. "Antonietta Grassi: Lifelines Extended (Lignes de vie... prolongement)"(PDF). City of Ottawa Documents. City Hall Art Gallery, City of Ottawa. Retrieved December 12, 2022. Grassi's mother and aunts worked in the garment industry when they first immigrated to Canada. Grassi herself worked as a textile designer before diving into the art world.
↑ Osterweil, Ara (2020). "Antonietta Grassi: Patrick Mikhail Gallery, "Critics' Picks,"". Artforum online. Artforum. Retrieved January 25, 2023. Following in the footsteps of her own immigrant family who found employment in Montreal's garment industry, Grassi worked as a textile designer before becoming a painter..
↑ Elliott, David (2002), Yves Gaucher (in French and English), Montréal, Québec: Galerie d'art Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, p.2, ISBN2920394606
↑ Elliott, David (2002), Yves Gaucher (in French and English), Montréal, Québec: Galerie d'art Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, p.4, ISBN2920394606, He was very demanding and difficult. What I got from Yves was that if you're going to be an artist, it's a serious business... I think of him every day when I'm in the studio. (quote Antonietta Grassi)
↑ "Antonietta Grassi, Quebec, Canada". International Drawing Annual 10, exhibition-in-print, online resource. Manifest Gallery. nd. Retrieved May 29, 2023. bio - education: Université de Québec à Montréal, MFA, 1997; Concordia University, BFA, 1994
↑ Bérubé, Stéphanie (June 6, 1998). "Grande fête de la peinture abstraite au Québec". La Presse (in French). Montréal: La Presse. pp.D17. Il y a des nombreuses découvertes à faire: Antonietta Grassi et ses grandes toiles aux couleurs calmes et délavés...
↑ "ANTONIETTA GRASSI CV". Patrick Mikhail. Patrick Mikhail Gallery. nd. Retrieved May 29, 2023. SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS: 1998 Scar Calendar, Helen Pitt Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
↑ Zimmermann Brendel, Maria (April 13, 2023). "Fugacious notations: Antoniella Grassi, Babble (and other coded language), Galerie Lilian Rodriguez, Montreal. February 23 - March 2002". "Érudite. Consortium Érudit. Retrieved May 29, 2023. Kristeva's chart is, uncannily, mirrored in Antonietta Grassi's recent painting series Babble (and other coded language), 2001. But here notations are from the perspective of a painter and mother who, in observing her infant in the process of acquiring language - the child being also the creative force, produced a unique and intellectually challenging body of work. The child's utterances are situated as space, colour and shape in a tension of abstraction and script. The formation of speech is aestheticized while the temporal side of language is arrested and thus given duration and attention.
↑ Bois, Michel (May 28, 2005). "Antonietta Grassi: Entendre la Peinture". Le Soleil (in French). Québec, Québec: Le Soleil.
↑ "Contemplation for Obsolete Objects". Patrick Mikhail Gallery. Patrick Mikhail Gallery. April 14, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2023. In CONTEMPLATION FOR OBSOLETE OBJECTS, Grassi taps into memories of spaces that are unfolding, and abandoned forms such as those of 20th century objects. No longer used for their function, these objects leave us to simply contemplate their presence in our environment. For the artist, the act of painting is a contemplative process and the object that emerges from that process forces us to view it deeply—something that is perhaps in itself precariously scarce and obsolete.
↑ Beattie, Amanda. "2021 Exhibitions - Antonietta Grassi – Lifelines (exhibition page)". City of Ottawa. Ottawa City Hall Art Gallery. Retrieved January 5, 2023. Antonietta Grassi's Linkers no. 2 (for Grace Hopper), like her other works in Lifelines Extended, tells the story of an art practice that is as layered and incandescent as the fuchsia, amber and coral coats of paint on its surface. The works in this exhibition pull together elements from different avenues of Grassi's inspirations. Fielding her own story from within an array of women who came before her; linking the textile industry and the Jacquard loom to computer programming; and bridging art movements such as Abstract Expressionism and Post-Minimalism, Grassi's work is rooted in history and research, while also open to chance and impromptu meanderings.
↑ Pasquarelli, Richard (December 2022). "Interview with Antonietta Grassi". White Hot Magazine. White Hot Magazine. Retrieved January 4, 2023. This autumn I visited Montreal, Canada, Antonietta's home town, and had the fortunate opportunity to see her solo exhibition Zip Stack Flow at Patrick Mikhail Gallery. We had the chance to discuss the works in her show.
↑ "Antonietta Grassi - Zip Stack Flow (exhibition page)". Patrick Mikhail Gallery. Patrick Mikhail Gallery. October 2022. Retrieved January 5, 2023. In Zip Stack Flow, Grassi creates paintings that appear to be compressions of her painting process—much like zip files or stacks—tightly packed with bits of data and time. In data visualization, "stacks" of information are mapped out into quantifiable values that result in graphic images that can be aesthetically captivating. Zip Stack Flow references not only the formal properties evident in Grassi's paintings but also the language around technology and the nature of work.
↑ "Antonietta Grassi". Les Femmes artistes au Canada/Women Artists in Canada. Library and Archives of Canada. nd. Retrieved May 28, 2023. Antonietta Grassi began as a clothing and textile designer but has been exhibiting her paintings and drawings since the early nineties. She holds a degree in design arts from Ryerson Polytechnical University, as well as a Bachelor in Fine Arts from Concordia University and an Master in Fine Arts from l'Université du Québec à Montréal. She has had numerous solo exhibitions across Canada, as well as collective shows in the United States, Canada, and Europe. In 1998, she participated in the historical survey of abstract painting in Québec, Peinture Peinture (a multi gallery and museum show curated by René Blouin), as well as Peintures de genres: L'actualité de la peinture abstraite au Québec in Lyon, France. The Scar Calendar Project, an ongoing series produced between January 1996 and January 1999, has been exhibited in many venues including the Helen Pitt Gallery in Vancouver, Artcore Gallery in Toronto, Galerie Lilian Rodriguez and Galerie Clark in Montreal, and the Center for the Arts in Boston. Her work can be found in many public and private collections including the Musée du Québec. She is represented by Galerie Lilian Rodriguez in Montreal.
↑ "Antonietta Grass". Patrick Mikhail Gallery. Patrick Mikhail Gallery. n.d. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
↑ Beattie, Amanda (2021). "Antonietta Grassi: Lifelines Extended (Lignes de vie... prolongement)"(PDF). Ottawa City Hall Art Gallery. City of Ottawa. Retrieved June 8, 2023. There is an audacious use of colour as per Helen Frankenthaler and Abstract Expressionism, and an interest in the grid and precision, as in the Minimalist approach of Agnes Martin.
↑ Osterweil, Ara (2020). "Antonietta Grassi: Patrick Mikhail Gallery, "Critics' Picks,"". Artforum online. Artforum. Retrieved January 25, 2023. Like Agnes Martin's grids, Grassi's paintings both bear the traces of the hands that made them and exceed the sum of their painstakingly articulated parts.
↑ Pasquarelli, Richard (December 2022). "Interview with Antonietta Grassi". White Hot Magazine. White Hot Magazine. Retrieved January 4, 2023. I began my career in textiles, therefore I cannot ignore the fabric I am painting on, in this case the linen or canvas. I want to make it part of the work. I use different types of linen which are sourced from various countries, with Belgian linen perhaps being the most widely known for painting. Each type of linen or canvas has its own unique properties and color. I like how the paint or ink appears more like a stain when I apply the initial layer. Much of this gets covered up when I apply subsequent layers of paint over the stain, but it does affect the way that the final colors come through. The neutral color of the linen also helps to temper the bright colors I tend to use.
↑ Beattie, Amanda (2021). "Antonietta Grassi: Lifelines Extended (Lignes de vie... prolongement)"(PDF). Ottawa City Hall Art Gallery. City of Ottawa. Retrieved June 8, 2023. A beige abyss. Hot pink solitude, suspended in time. A geometric poem, woven with threads that connect technology, memory, and abstraction. In Antonietta Grassi's work, all of these separate entities become neatly tied together in a mathematical, painterly, and thoughtful exploration of colour and light; shape and line. A geometric poem, woven with threads that connect technology, memory, and abstraction.
↑ Osterweil, Ara (2020). "Antonietta Grassi: Patrick Mikhail Gallery, "Critics' Picks,"". Artforum online. Artforum. Retrieved January 25, 2023. ...while underscoring the contiguity of modernist composition and traditional craft, her exquisite abstractions also demonstrate the visual similarities between loom work and computer code.
↑ Beattie, Amanda (2021). "Antonietta Grassi: Lifelines Extended (Lignes de vie... prolongement)"(PDF). Ottawa City Hall Art Gallery. City of Ottawa. Retrieved June 8, 2023. The works in this exhibition pull together elements from different avenues of Grassi's inspirations. Fielding her own story from within an array of women who came before her; linking the textile industry and the Jacquard loom to computer programming; and bridging art movements such as Abstract Expressionism and Post-Minimalism, Grassi's work is rooted in history and research, while also open to chance and impromptu meanderings.
↑ Pasquarelli, Richard (December 2022). "Interview with Antonietta Grassi". White Hot Magazine. White Hot Magazine. Retrieved January 4, 2023. I have a background in textiles and a few years ago I became interested in the historical link between the Jacquard loom and computer programming. The Jacquard loom, a machine invented in the 1800s that weaves complex patterns using punch cards, was an important development in the history of computer hardware thanks to Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage. It became their inspiration for the "analytic engine" which provided the template for what we now consider to be the first computer. I found this link to be fascinating and it made a lot of sense intuitively to integrate these themes into my work since I had been interested in both textiles and analog technology for a while.
↑ Pasquarelli, Richard (December 2022). "Interview with Antonietta Grassi". White Hot Magazine. White Hot Magazine. Retrieved January 4, 2023. It also felt necessary to highlight the forgotten contribution of women scientists and mathematicians such as Lovelace and the many others who came after her as pioneers of early computer programming and how their contribution to the field of coding had largely been forgotten. Some of the titles of my paintings refer to the names of women scientists or the programs they developed, and this has been a helpful access point to start that conversation.
↑ "Une œuvre d'art pour le nouveau bureau de Québec: les tableaux d'Antonietta Grassi sur les murs du Conseil". Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (Nouvelles). Gouvernement du Québec. n.d. Retrieved January 5, 2023. Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec est heureux d'annoncer qu'une création de l'artiste visuelle Antonietta Grassi a été intégrée à l'espace d'accueil du nouveau bureau du Conseil dans le quartier Saint-Roch, à Québec.
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