Sophie Grillet

Exhibition Showing: September 5 – October 2, 2023

SAMPLES FROM THE GALLERY

Artist Biography:

Sophie is a British artist working in Ann Arbor, Michigan, serving clients mostly in southeast Michigan and the greater Detroit area. Her preferred media are: painting in oils and acrylics; sculpture in stone, metal and clay; pastel, drawings, and photography.  Much of her work is abstract, but it is always about something, and often has interesting titles. She likes to experiment with all kinds of media from aluminum to yarn.

Being insatiably curious, Sophie attempts to integrate her interests in art, social justice,  science (physics and ecology), and math, but the journey has just begun. Her work reflects on the tragedy of our love of natural beauty and our haste to destroy it.

Back when Sophie lived in the UK, she was a cartoonist for books, magazines and national newspapers, such as The Guardian, The Observer and the London Evening Standard.  She studied at the Central St Martins School of Art (Foundation year) in London, and graduated from the University of Brighton.

Soon after graduating (with Honors) in Visual Communication, Sophie chose to fill a knowledge gap in Physics and Mathematics, which she then studied with the Open University in the UK. Several of her 3D works and paintings reflect this interest.

Sophie was Artist-in-Residence at Spread Art,  5141 Rosa Parks Blvd, Detroit in Nov 2016.  In three weeks, she created five paintings and a print set of the Detroit River, had a well-attended art exhibition and directed an evening of rap, song and poetry at which the entire, extremely diverse audience movingly sang along to the late Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.

Since 2005, Sophie has been a Docent at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, since November 2019 a member of the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission, and since October 2020 a Board Member and Chair of Communications for the Huron River Art Collective.

Learn more at: sophieartist.com