LAURENT MARTIN LO

CV

Laurent Martin ‘Lo’

Education -1985-1988: Visual Arts, Ecole National Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris,

EXHIBITIONS
2019
Visions in motion. Puerta roja. Hong Kong
2018
Reflections, Puerta Roja, Hong Kong
Variations, Art’Loft, Brussels, Belgium
Zhu Qi, Puerta Roja, Hong Kong

2017
Vents, Galeria Patrick Domken Cadaqués, Spain
Collectors Cabinet, Puerta Roja, Hong Kong
Bamboo Trace, Contemporary International Bamboo Art & Craft, National Taiwan Crafts
Development Institute, Taipei, Taiwan

2016
Intangible Space, Puerta Roja, Hong Kong
Sur les Chemins du Bambou, Sculpture Museum Can Mario, Spain

2015
Bamboo Sculptor 2005-2015, Espai Volart. Fundació Vila Casas, Barcelona, Spain
Art Elysees Fair. Miquel Alzueta Gallery, Paris, France
Taboo Bamboo, Patrick Domken Gallery, Cadaqués (Girona), Spain
10 Years with the Energy of Bamboo, Km7 Gallery, Girona, Spain
HCH Gallery, The Hague, The Netherlands

2014
Record’Art Cadaqués, Galería Patrick Domken, Cadaqués, Spain
Bamboo Sail, Galeria Casavells, Girona, Spain
2013
Bamboo Energy, Ars et Scientia, Centro Médico Teknon, Barcelona, Spain
Inside Bamboo, Palau de Casavells, Girona, Spain
Movement and Space, Marges-U, Cadaqués, Spain
Appertizers of Art, HCH Gallery, The Hague, The Netherlands

2012
One Bamboo Show, Palau de Casavells, Girona, Spain
Bamboo Spheres, Km7 Gallery, Girona, Spain
Bamboo Spheres, Ingracia Space, Barcelona, Spain

2011
Organic Geometry, Aina Nowack Gallery, Madrid, Spain
The Soul of Wind, Tramuntan’art, Port de la Selva, Spain

2010
Bamboo Mind, HCH Gallery, The Hague, The Netherlands
Galaxy, Impar Gallery, São Paulo, Brazi
Inside Bamboo, Àmbit Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
Bamboo Dreams, Km7 Gallery, Girona, Spain
Alphabet of Wind, Galería Pilar Riberaygua, Andorra
Bamboo Spirit, K Space, Sant Feliu de Guixols, Spain
Dream with Woman and Boat, Ruta de l’Art, Castelló d’Empúries, Spain

2009
Form and Colour, N2 Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
The Route of Art, Castelló d’Empúries, Spain
The Dead Nature, Km7 Gallery, Girona, Spain

2008

At the Edge of the Wind, Km7 Gallery, Girona, Spain
Body Bamboo, Ctartica Gallery, Torino, Italy

2007
Bamboo Wind, N3 Gallery, Madrid, Spain
Bamboo Space, N2 Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
Km7 Gallery, Girona, Spain
Galería Juan Planellas, Tossa de Mar, Spain
2006
Bamboo Gove, Km7 Gallery, Girona, Spain
Large Formats, Galería Ignacio de Lassaletta, Barcelona, Spain

2005
Bamboo Art Work Km7 Gallery, Girona, Spain
Small Formats, Galería Ignacio de Lassaletta Gallery, Barcelona, Spain

Selected Art Fair
2019. Art Central Hong Kong
2018. KIAF, Seoul, South Korea
2018 Art Central, Hong Kong
2018 Art Paris, France
2017 Art Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan
2017 KIAF, Seoul, South Korea
2017 Art Stage Jakarta, Jakarta, Indonesia
2016 KIAF, Seoul, South Korea
2015 ART MADRID Contemporary Art Fair, Madrid, Spain
2015 EURANTICA Brussels Fine Art Fair, Brussels, Belgium
2014 PINTA London Art Fair, London, UK
2014 Breda Art Fair, Breda, Netherlands

Grants and Awards
2012 Finalist prize of sculptors, Vila Casas Foundation, Palafrugell, Spain
2009 Finalist prize of sculptors, Vila Casas Foundation. Palafrugell. Spain

Selected Collections
Fundació Vila Casas, Bacelona, Spain
Museo Can Mario,Palafrugell, Spain
Fundación Daurella, Barcelona, Spain
Fundación Daurella, Girona, Spain
Maison Particuliere, Brussels
Living collections. William Lim. Hong kong.
Koo House Museum of Art and Design Collection, Seoul, South Korea
Kai Yin Lo Collection, Hong Kong
Sun-Jet Collection, Vicky Liang, Taiwan

About

Laurent Martin “Lo”
Born in France, he trained as 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 becomes 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 taking him all over the world to countries that are in what the artist call “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 discover 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 use bamboo 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 the balance in nature.

Mercedes Durban Monreal
Art consultant