Marie Grillo
Where centuries-old craftsmanship meets contemporary creation
Marie Grillo is a contemporary stained-glass artist based in Paris. She designs bespoke stained-glass for private clients, architects, interior designers and institutions, bringing together traditional techniques and contemporary creation.
Background
As a teenager, she was passionate about ballet and literature. Both shape her work today. Marie Grillo found in the art of stained-glass the rigour and the poetry of both her passions.
Drawn to the living quality of glass, she pursued literary studies at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris alongside her training at ENSAAMA, where she learned the traditional techniques of stained-glass. She then specialised in glass painting, a demanding craft to which she is particularly attached.
After deepening her knowledge in several French workshops, where she practised both the creation and the restoration of stained-glass for French Historic Monuments, Marie Grillo founded her own studio, La Couleur du Verre, in Paris in 2016.
Artistic approach
Stained-glass shapes the character of a place and gives it a singular atmosphere.
Marie Grillo combines centuries-old craftsmanship with a contemporary approach. Whether she revisits traditional styles of works on original creations, each piece the artist makes is unique and answers the needs of a project and the wishes of a client. Everything is custom designed and made by hand.
My stained glass is meant to nourish the soul of a place, according to what its occupants long for. I draw on a wide range of inspirations and styles, always taking care to step slightly aside from them so that each of my creations keeps its own singularity. I attach great importance to that step aside.
Marie Grillo
Through her work with the material, sustained by constant research and experimentation, Marie Grillo pays tribute to glass and to its many qualities. Transparency, opacity, brilliance and reflections… glass is used in all its forms and aspects.
Deeply committed to the principles of fine craftsmanship, Marie Grillo places human creativity and quality of execution at the heart of her practice. Much like in ballet, her gestures are shaped by years of learning and repetition. Hands and body are engaged in a productive choreography, from the drawing to the cutting of the glass and the glazing.
Why stained glass?
Glass is a material of infinite beauty and endless variation. Since antiquity it has been the object of experiment, discovery and secrets. Ever-present in our contemporary environment, it is today valued for its invisible presence: window glass, entirely transparent, without texture. As a stained-glass artist, my approach is the opposite. My works reveal the presence of glass, its textures, its colours and its imperfections. I bring this wonderful material to life.
Marie Grillo
Awards and distinctions
- 2016 — Winner of the Fondation d’entreprise Banque Populaire Prize
- 2017 — Joins Ateliers d’Art de France
- 2018 — Winner of the Fondation Rémy Cointreau Prize
- 2019 — Fabriqué à Paris label
- 2022 — Joins the Homo Faber Guide and the Michel Angelo Foundation
