Grisi, Laura

Laura Grisi was born in Rhodes in 1939. After moving to Rome with her family, she studied at the Zileri Art Institute under Toti Scialoja. She later relocated to Paris, where she continued her studies at the École des Beaux-Arts and collaborated with the Russian set and costume designers Dobujinski. Upon returning to Rome, she met the director, photographer, documentary filmmaker, and writer Folco Quilici, whom she married in early 1958. From that moment on, she began her professional activity as a photographer, working as her husband’s assistant and traveling through South America, Polynesia, Africa, and Asia.

In 1959, she published the photographic volume Pasos por Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires, signed Laura Quilici. In 1964, she released I denti del tigre, written during her stay in Polynesia. That same year, she made her debut as a painter with a solo exhibition at the Galleria Il Segno in Rome. In 1965, she exhibited at Beatrice Monti’s gallery and took part in the Rome Quadriennale; in 1966, she appeared for the first time at the Venice Biennale.

In May 1968, Grisi was the only woman artist featured in the Young Italians exhibition at the Jewish Museum in New York. During the same period in Rome, she participated in the experimental showcase Teatro delle mostre, organized by Plinio de Martiis at the La Tartaruga gallery, presenting a windstorm created with large fans that engulfed visitors within the enclosed gallery space. This “open” and participatory work would find continuity in related pieces such as Rain Room (1968), the fog installation later presented at the Marlborough Gallery in Rome (1969), and the starry sky created for the Galleria del Naviglio in Milan (1970).

Although close to the research of Arte Povera, Grisi never formally joined the group gathered around Germano Celant. From these early experiences onward, her work became distinguished by the creation of environments built around primary natural elements, by the staging of the relationship between body and space, and by explorations of time—often through the medium of video, conceived as a natural element in continuous transformation.

Laura Grisi passed away in Rome in December 2017.

Artista