Post War California artist, John Grillo was known as one of the most aggressive West Coast artists to pursue Abstract Expressionism and painted in gouache, watercolor and poster-based water paints as well as oil. In addition, he was also a sculptor, printmaker and art educator.

Grillo was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts and studied at the Hartford Art School, 1935-1938; California School of Fine Arts, 1945-1947; with Hans Hoffman in New York and the Hans Hoffman School of Fine Arts, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1948-1951. Grillo remained active in Provincetown, Massachusetts during much of his career.

He received the Ford Foundation grant to work at Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles, 1964 and the Ford Foundation artist-in-residence grant at Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, 1964. He taught at the New School for Social Research, New York, 1964-1966 and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 1967-1991.

Solo Exhibitions: Artist's Gallery, NYC, 1948; Tibor de Nagy Gallery, 1953; Bertha Schaefer Gallery, 1955, 1957, 1959; Howard Wise Gallery, 1961, 1962, 1963; University California, Berkeley 1962; and University of Massachusetts, 1988

Selected Group Exhibitions: The Oakland Museum, California. A Period of Exploration: San Francisco 1945-1950; 1973

Sources include:
Peter Falk, "Who Was Who in American Art"
Gordon T. McClelland and Jay T Last, "California Watercolors"