Antonietta Grassi has been committed to the practice of abstract painting for most of her career. Her works, which at first appear as hard-edged geometric abstractions, are composed of multi-layered, painted surfaces where the touch of the hand is paramount. Grassi paints layered, intuitively derived forms that are intersected by fine, thread-like lines—creating works where textile, architecture, digital and analog technologies, and painting’s twentieth-century history collide.
Grassi fills her ambiguous pictorial spaces with layered geometric shapes, creating distorted three-dimensional objects that are enigmatic and familiar. Through her nuanced and layered palette, she explores color and light to create objects and compositions that are drawn from memory and imagination. Grassi’s work is simultaneously mathematical and painterly, reflecting a process-driven approach that belies the organized compositions of the geometric forms prevalent in the works.
Grassi lives and works in Montreal, Canada. Her paintings and works on paper have been shown in museums and galleries in Canada, the United States, and in Europe, including Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Quebec (MNBAQ), Boston Center for the Arts, Katonah Museum in New York, MAACK Kalenarte in Italy, and Kunstwerk Calshutte in Germany. Her work is held in notable collections, including MNBAQ, Global Affairs Canada, Archives of Ontario, Groupe Desjardins, Museo MAACK, Boston Public Library, and Stewart Hall Art Gallery. She is the recipient of awards from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des Arts et Lettres du Quebec and has participated in artist residencies such as the Banff Center for Arts in Alberta, Canada, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Studios at MASS MOCA, MA, USA.