Lazongas Yorgos (1945 - 2022)

He was born in 1945 in Larissa, Thessaly. He studied architecture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1963-1970), but he eventually devoted himself to painting. In 1970 he was awarded at the Goethe Institute’s competition for young painters (Thessaloniki) and in 1972 he won the first prize at the Hellenic-American Union’s young painters contest. He presented his first solo exhibition in Thessaloniki (Zita-Mi gallery, 1975) and over the next year he studied painting in Paris on a French state scholarship. There he met gallerist Alexander Iolas and familiarized himself with the modern art movements.
It was apparent from his early works that he was interested in developing the drawing into a figurative or abstract style, which is originally imprinted on the painting surface, tending at the same time to penetrate space. By overlapping or erasing successive layers of forms, often on transparent surfaces, the variable and fleeting traces of the image were highlighted, like palimpsests.
From the ‘80s onward, his work extended in space even more, often in the form of visual installations, by using various media (prints, photography, video, drawing, painting, etc) depending on his expressive needs. The traces-imprints of human bodies on large textile surfaces were the new figurative and conceptual reference point of his works. In this way, he comments on art as a physical process and as an interpretive approach. His allusions to artworks of ancient times suggest that his concerns are timeless.
He taught at the Department of Architecture of AUTH (1982-1999) and in 2008 he was elected professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts, where he taught until 2012.
His solo exhibitions have been presented mainly in Greece, while he has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Greece, Europe, Asia and the U.S.A. In 1977 he was awarded in a competition of foreign painters, fellows of the French State. He participated in the Salon Comparaisons (Paris, 1978), in the Biennale des Jeunes (Paris, 1980), in Europalia (1982, Ostend, Belgium, where he was awarded the Prix Europe), in the Biennale of Sao Paulo (1983), in the Salon de Montrouge (Paris, 1996) and in art events organized in the context of ‘Thessaloniki Cultural Capital of Europe’ (1997). A retrospective exhibition of his drawings was organized at the Benaki Museum and at the Contemporary Museum of Modern Art in Athens in 2006, and an album was published with texts by N. Valaoritis, T. Patrikios, et al. In 2008 he created a permanent installation for ‘Eleonas’ Athens metro station.