LORENZO LARA: his work and life.

LORENZO LARA, is born in Madrid on the 15th of April (the same day as Leonardo Da Vinci) of 1969. He is the second son a famous doctor and a businesswoman very fond of arts who live in a neighborhood of Alcobendas.

Ever since he is a little child he feels attracted by painting due to the influence of his mother, who’s an amateur painter that finds in art a way to relieve the stress due to her job.

When he is 12 years old, and due to a trip to Wales, he receives a present from his grandfather, a camera, something that will change his life. From that moment on, he will try to express everything he sees through the lens, trying to come up with a unique vision, especially of the reality surrounding him. This camera, which he keeps in a special spot in his studio, triggered his artistic vocation. This is what Lorenzo says about it: “It was the gift that changed my life; without it, I would have never become a painter”.

In 1987, with 18 years of age, he starts studying Law and, at the same time, helping with the family business –this doesn’t satisfy him, but keeps him in constant doubt… Nevertheless, he finishes his degree and a master’s in business management as well.

In 1990, that longing of his for a world outside business gets fostered by his uncle Fernando, who offers him a small photo lab where Lorenzo spends many hours experimenting with everything he has caught with his camera, giving a distinct and personal touch to pieces of work he keeps for himself and give him a deeper satisfaction than he can find in the world of law and business.

In 1992, he befriends Antonio Marcos, who opens for him the doors of a new world. In his company he learns the plastic importance of photography and the techniques of artistic developing. This means a radical change in his life: he starts to exhibit and sell his photographs and for the first time starts to think about leaving his studies.

That doubt becomes stronger and stronger and leads to a time of heated family clashes. Lorenzo, who feels strongly attired by a world in which he can express his ideas and offer his unique vision of reality, rejects the average professional status. He isn’t happy behind a desk, he feels tied down and business achievements do not satisfy him.

He tries to share this situation with his close ones in various occasions, and this leads to strong arguments and a constant battle with people he loves and respects but cannot understand nor accept his point of view.

In 1995, he takes the big decision: he quits a promising career in the world of business, something that would surely give him success and financial comfort but wouldn’t make him happy, and breaks up with his earlier way of life.

Looking for the peace and joy he hasn’t reached yet, he starts an esoteric trip trough the East. He gets interested in eastern culture and Zen philosophy and starts leading an ascetic life of meditation that finally fills him with a peace of the spirit that reinforces his decision of leaving behind all those things that had never contributed to his personal growth.

In 1998 in company of Kali, a female Labrador that will be his faithful companion, he withdraws to a ranch of fighting bulls, where he keeps on purifying his spirit and putting into practice all the things learnt in the East.

During all these years, he never leaves his camera behind and keeps on working, creating new art with an avant-garde and very original artistic conception, filled with surprising and contrasting details of a reality that goes unnoticed by the rest of the people.

His life of retirement goes on and he spends two years living in a trailer, in close contact with Nature –there he finally puts an end to his doubts and reaches his peace of mind.

In 2001 he settles down with Kali and her pups in La Moraleja, taking the decision of professionally focusing on artistic photography, but something takes his artistic life in a new direction. The artist himself explains it in these terms:

He has never wanted to sell this painting, even when he received an interesting offer, and now it presides over his studio in Suances, as a reminder of the path he finally chose and the fact that there is no turning back.

In 2002, he moves to Marbella, close to the sea and away from family struggles. He paints tirelessly and starts getting his first professional assignments –the gallery of Pedro Peña asks him for two paintings for its back catalogue.

His work draws the attention of critics and artists alike, specially that of Jonatan Liskett, with whom he develops a second friendship that will take him to make part of the circle of European artists and humanists, where he organizes his first individual exhibition in Marbella.

He starts to be well known in the artistic world of the Costa del Sol and gets to know the Marbellí painter Francisco Sánchez Gil, with whom he shares artistic interests and gatherings. His work is exhibited:

• Individually in the Congress Centre of Estepona.
• Individually in the Spain Diamond Center of Marbella.
• Collectively in the International Art Fair Mac 21.

In all of these exhibitions he earns great praise from the critics, leading to his first individual exhibition abroad, in the Diamond Center of Tel-Aviv, where he is presented as one of the most promising Spanish artists.

Back from the South, after a short stay in Alcobendas and at his sister’s request, he meets his neighbors by organizing a small exhibition of his works in the Anabel Segura Civic Centre. He also uses this stay near Madrid to have his work exhibited for the first time in the capital, in the Miró Room of the Palacio de Exposiciones y Congresos de Madrid..

These exhibitions are a new and successful milestone in his career: the Art Spectrum Magazine publishes a long and complimentary review and he receives an offer to exhibit his works in a permanent way at the premises of the Transmobel company. He goes back to Marbella with faithful Kali and her offspring and keeps working with even more energy. He paints “Paseando a mis perritas” (“Walking my dogs”) as an homage to them –a painting he never intends to sell.

In 2003, he settles down in La Moraleja. The relationship with his family is better and everyone accepts that Lorenzo will never be an executive manager, but only LORENZO LARA, a brilliant and committed artist that wants to show everyone a colorful and joyful vision of reality. His paintings are windows that open on an optimistic universe, based on a unique point of view on life from an Eastern and Zen perspective.

From that moment on his career takes off –his work is exhibited in:

• Miami, in the II International Meeting of Arts.
• The Agora Gallery of New York.

All this leads to a first international acknowledgement: his name and work appear in the European Guide of Fine Arts and the Revistar magazine names him one of the most promising young painters of the XXI century.

In Madrid he meets Javier de Villota, painter and architect with whom he builds a strong friendship, expressed in common projects and never ending conversations on the truth, freshness and strength of contemporary art.

During 2004 in the career of LORENZO LARA there is a constant series of exhibitions:

• International Art Fair (Interart).
• Individual exhibition at the Amura Hotel of Alcobendas.
• Decoration of the stand of the Amura Hotel for Fitur.
• Virtual exhibition at the website of the Cruz Herrera Museum.
• The Artemix Art Gallery from the Arte y Naturaleza group is in charge of the promotion of his work in Spain.

2005, sees the beginning of the building works for his Cantabrian house-studio, a relatively isolated place where he can focus all his energy in the creation of art, away from the social life that spans from his professional career. During this year:

• He takes part in the VII International Abstraction Juried Exhibition of New York’s Period Gallery where his painting Imposible is awarded a special mention.
• His work is exhibited with that of his friend Javier de Villota at the International Art Festival of Catalonia.
• An individual exhibition of his work is organized at the Dionis Bennassar Gallery in Madrid.
• He is invited to take part in an exhibition at the Almoneda Antique Fair with the Loren Art Gallery from Madrid.
• The Ing Group organizes a retrospective of his work.
• An individual exhibition of his work is shown at the Espacio Libre Gallery, in La Moraleja.
• He presents a painting in the “Dreams” exhibition at the Callendar Gallery in Beverly Hills.
• He is included in the National Art Catalog Cannart, published by the Revisart magazine.
• He paints a mural for a shopping mall in Seville.
• He starts a fruitful cooperation with the Latin American Art Museum in Miami, in charge of presenting his work at the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Brussels International Art Fair. 20 international artists include him in their books.
• He takes part in a collective exhibition in Holland.

And on top of this, he has been constantly present in the media, who refer to LORENZO LARA as a palpable reality in the current world of art. These are his next projects:

• Locked up in his studio, he is preparing an exhibition of big size paintings that will soon take place at the Museum of Latin American Art of California.
• The Municipality of Alcobendas has hired him for the painting of a mural that will grace the entrance to La Moraleja, emblematic neighborhood north of Madrid.
• He is negotiating with the Municipality of Santiago de Chile the painting of a mural and at the same time he keeps on working with his own personal vision based on the abstraction of matter, trying to offer the viewer a joyful and optimistic point of view on a reality that too often is a painful one.
• He has different projects in mind while he finishes the fitting out of his Temple-Museum in Cantabria, in the village of Tagle, at a small distance from the Caves of Altamira. The Temple-Museum will host a permanent exhibition of his work, as well the central offices in charge of the spreading, information, exhibition and sales concerning his work.