Laurent Martin Lo

About

France, 1955

Born in France, he trained as a visual artist in ENSAD (Paris). For many years he worked as creative director both in advertising and fashion. His first encounter with bamboo was totally circumstantial but it was “love at first sight”, the artist says. Bamboo became his obsession, really a passion, that drove the artist to change his life. He left behind his work, house, city…to set up on his first trip to the bamboo countries. Since then he has been traveling long roads in search of the essence of bamboo. Roads which have taken him all over the world to countries that are in what the artist calls “the bamboo belt”…an imaginary terrestrial parallel running around the tropics which, thanks to bamboo, unites far-flung peoples and connects, from Americas to Asia, diverse cultures.

He travelled to remote areas of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam where for many communities the bamboo is still the main resource. Living with them, Laurent learnt the craftsmanship and different uses of bamboo. He also discovered the emotionality and millenary tradition of bamboo as well as its sensuality and spirituality. When he travelled to Central and South America, he followed the work of architects and engineers who used bamboo’s natural properties, flexibility and hardiness, mixed with contemporary techniques and materials. The Indonesian trip meant the integration of bamboo ́s emotional charges, the creativity and the architectural dimensions by discovering the fusion of traditional techniques with contemporary architecture.

Lo’s creative process has been mainly an evolution process. His creativity lies within his deep knowledge and understanding of bamboo. His artistic palette is within the physical and sensorial virtues of bamboo: its very sophisticated organic structure, but also its energy as well as its spirituality. Establishing an intimate dialogue with bamboo, Laurent experiments its flexibility, resistance, density, lightness, mathematics and poetry. A language that allows him to combine both tension and compression, creating sculptures based on movement and balance.

His bamboo structures swing, drawing curves and harmony in the air. With his subtle yet strong gestures, tensions and counterweights, the artist tells us about a fragile harmony that is achieved using opposites: flexibility and strength, fullness and void, light and shadow, movement and quietness. “Lo” invites the spectator to begin a personal dialogue with him/herself looking for calm, serenity and balance in nature.

Mercedes Durban Monreal
Art consultant

CV

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SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
One Bamboo Show, Alzueta Gallery, Madrid, Spain (2024)
Celestial Equilibrium, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong, China (2024)
Bamboo Lover, Alzueta Gallery, Palau de Casavells, Casavells, Spain (2023)
Yoyo & Lo, Galeria Patrick Domken, Cadaqués, Girona, Spain (2023)
Holly Circles, Alzueta Gallery, Palau de Casavells, Casavells, Spain (2022)
Cadaqués Soul, Galeria Patrick Domken, Cadaqués, Girona, Spain (2022)
Bamboo Spaces, Sa Pleta Freda Gallery, Mallorca, Spain (2022)
Dialogue, Alzueta Gallery, Barcelona, Spain (2021)
Bamboo Swing, Palau de Casavells, Casavells, Spain (2021)
Crossing the Void, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong, China (2020)
Territorios Compartidos, Mexico City, Mexico (2019)
Visions in Motion, Puerta Roja, Hong Kong, China (2019)
Anatomía del Viento, Palau de Casavells, Casavells, Spain (2019)
Anatomía del Viento, Galeria Patrick Domken, Cadaqués, Girona, Spain (2019)
Organic System, Palau de Casavells, Casavells, Spain (2019)
Reflections, Puerta Roja, Hong Kong, China (2018)
Variations, Art Loft, Brussels, Belgium (2018)
Zhu Qi, Puerta Roja, Hong Kong, China (2018)
Bamboo Spirit, Palau Moxó, Barcelona, Spain (2018)
Vents, Galería Patrick Domken, Cadaqués, Girona, Spain (2017)
Bamboo Traces, NTCRI, Taipei, Taiwan (2017)
Intangible Space, Puerta Roja, Hong Kong, China (2016)
Sur les Chemins du Bambou, Museu Can Mario, Palafrugell, Girona, Spain (2016)
Bamboo Sculptor, 2005-2015, Espai Volart, Fundació Vila Casas, Barcelona, Spain (2015)
Taboo Bamboo, Patrick Domken Gallery, Cadaqués, Girona, Spain (2015)
10 Years with the Energy of Bamboo, Km7 Gallery, Girona, Spain (2015)
Bamboo Energy, HCH Gallery, The Hague, Netherlands (2015)
Record’Art Cadaqués, Galería Patrick Domken, Cadaqués, Spain (2014)
Bamboo Sail, Galeria Palau de Casavells, Girona, Spain (2014)

SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
Spring Show, Alzueta Gallery, Palau de Casavells, Girona, Spain (2024)
Group Show, Le Sentiment des Choses Gallery, Paris, France (2024)
Group Show, Museu Can Mario, Palafrugell, Girona, Spain (2023)
Group Show, Torroella de Fluvia, Spain (2023)
Group Show, Museu Can Mario, Palafrugell, Girona, Spain (2022)
Group Show, Collectors Cabinet, Puerta Roja, Hong Kong, China (2017)
Appertizers of Art, HCH Gallery, The Hague, Netherlands (2013)
Group Show, Unraveling, The Art Project, Galerie Espacio, Maastricht, NL (2015)
Form and Colour, N2 Gallery, Barcelona, Spain (2009)
The Route of Art, Castelló d’Empúries, Spain (2009)

SELECTED ART FAIRS
LUXEMBOURG ART WEEK, Alzueta Gallery, Luxembourg, Luxembourg (2024)
ART PARIS, Le Sentiment des Choses Gallery, Paris, France (2024)
ART BASEL HONG KONG, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong, China (2024)
ARMORY SHOW, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, New York, USA (2023)
ART BASEL HONG KONG, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong, China (2023)
KIAF ART FAIR SEOUL, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Seoul, Korea (2022)
ART BASEL HONG KONG, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong, China (2022)
ART BASEL HONG KONG, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong, China (2021)
SPOTLIGHT BY ART BASEL HONG KONG, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong, China (2020)
ART PARIS, Alzueta Gallery, Paris, France (2020)
ART PARIS, Alzueta Gallery, Paris, France (2019)
ART CENTRAL, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong, China (2019)
KIAF ART FAIR, Puerta Roja Gallery H.K., Seoul, Korea (2018)
ART CENTRAL, Puerta Roja Gallery H.K., Hong Kong, China (2018)
ART TAIPEI, Puerta Roja Gallery H.K., Taipei, Taiwan (2018)
ART STAGE, Puerta Roja Gallery H.K., Jakarta, Indonesia (2018)
ART PARIS, Alzueta Gallery, Paris, France (2017)
KIAF ART FAIR, Puerta Roja Gallery H.K., Seoul, Korea (2017)
KIAF ART SEOUL, Puerta Roja Gallery H.K., Seoul, Korea (2016)
ART MADRID, Alzueta Gallery, Madrid, Spain (2015)
AURANTICA, Brussels, Belgium (2015)
PINTA, Aina Novak Gallery, London, UK (2014)
BREDA ART FAIR, Low Countries (2014)

PIECES IN COLLECTIONS, FOUNDATIONS AND MUSEUMS
Shinedale Collection South Korea
M+ Museum Hong Kong
Koo House Museum of Art and Design Collection, Seoul, South Korea
Kai Yin Lo Collection, Hong Kong
Living Collections (William Lim), Hong Kong
Sun-Jet Collection, Vicky Liang, Taiwan
Esther Heer-Zacek Collection
Banco Popular Collection, Puerto Rico.
Fundació Vila Casas, Barcelona, Spain
Museo Can Mario,Palafrugell, Spain
Fundación Daurella, Barcelona, Spain
Fundación Daurella, Ventalló Girona, Spain
Maison Particuliere, Brussels