ARTE: Grillo Demo

From left: Marella's Jasmine Portrait, 2008; Bambino with Falling Jasmine, 2000; Marguerita, 2008

ARTIST GRILLO DEMO MAKES THE MAGIC LOOK EASY. ALL YOU NEED IS A LITTLE JASMINE

In Renaissance-era Tuscany, only Alessandro de’ Medici, the Duke of Florence, was allowed to grow jasmine. “The flower is an iconic pattern,” says artist Grillo Demo. “It is my discipline. It is my yoga in the morning. It is my daily vision. And it is an overwhelming presence in my garden.” Demo would have made a fine duke. The 52-year-old Argentinean, who now lives and works in Ibiza, made his name by painting jasmine petals onto found photographic portraits of the rich and famous, including Marella Agnelli, Elle MacPherson, and Margherita Missoni.

His current exhibit at Phillips de Pury in New York, Demo’s first major exhibition in the United States, features over 20 works, ranging from the expected flower-petal portraits to ceramic vases and tables produced with his longtime gallerist David Gill. Demo’s pronounced taste for the surreal translates into unexpected shapes. “I do not pretend to be a designer,” he says. “Everything comes from my diaries. I like spontaneity. As a kid in Argentina, I always had to create my own things.” It is an underlying need to create fanciful, dreamt-up environments that drives him, he explains. “Everyday is a wonder; osmosis is what I live by.”

Demo delights in life’s quirks and twists of fate. Asked about Bambino, one of the works presented in the de Pury exhibit, he launches into a typical story. “Everything I do comes together in a very unexpected way,” he says. “I found the original portrait for Bambino in a garbage can, and used it as an amulet. Then I blew it up and applied flowers to it. Then, when Madonna had just moved to London, she came into the gallery and bought three editions. She had no idea who I was. But Madonna and the child, the bambino—it was so perfect. My life is a miracle.” Simon Castets

Artwork Grillo Demo