Ezio Gribaudo was born in Turin on January 10, 1929. He trained at the Accademia di Brera in Milan from 1949 to 1952, and attended the Faculty of Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Turin from 1950 to 1952. As a young artist he travelled to Paris in 1947, Moscow in 1950, and Bucharest in 1953. His first solo show took place in 1953 at the Saletta Cristallo in Turin. In 1959 he had an important exhibition at La Bussola Gallery in Turin. That same year he joined the Fratelli Pozzo publishing house, working as an editor until 1974. In the early 1960s Gribaudo came into contact with different artistic circles. In 1960 he met members of the CoBrA group, including Pierre Alechinsky, Karel Appel, and Asger Jorn. In 1961 he traveled to New York, where he met Marcel Duchamp and Hans Hofmann; and Paris, where he befriended Bram van Velde and Samuel Beckett. In 1964 he met David Alfaro Siqueiros in Mexico.

In the mid-1960s Gribaudo moved away from Art Informel aesthetics and drew closer to Nouveau Réalisme. In 1965 he took part in the Salon de Mai in Paris, and won an award at the 9th Quadriennale Nazionale d’Arte in Rome. Moreover, he associated with Graham Sutherland and returned to Mexico and the United States. In 1966 he was awarded the Official Prize at the Venice Biennale and a year later he received an award at the São Paulo Bienal. In 1967 he also entered the Salón de Mayo in Havana, Cuba, where he collaborated with other artists in the production of the painting, Cuba Colectiva. In 1969 he visited London, becoming close friends with Henry Moore. In the following decades Gribaudo continued his extensive travels; his trips to China and Australia had a particularly long-lasting influence on his work.

In 1971 Gribaudo exhibited at the Kunstverein, Gottingen. In 1974 he presented his work at the Marlborough Gallery, London, and at the Michaud Gallery, Florence, alongside David Hockney. In 1976 he designed his own studio in Turin and persuaded Peggy Guggenheim to exhibit a selection of her works at the Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna in Turin. In 1986 Gribaudo was given a retrospective at the Centro Incontri Avigdor in Turin. In 2003 he received the City of Turin’s Gold Medal. In 2005 he was elected President of the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts, Turin and in 2008 he became an Honorary Academician of the same institution; the Albertina organized a special exhibition to commemorate this event. Ezio Gribaudo died in Turin, Italy, on July 18, 2022.