The Artist

1958 Paris, France

Lolo Zazar, a sculptor and animation film maker from Paris came to Vietnam many times as a visitor and in 2005 he and his Vietnamese wife settled here permanently. Trained as a sculptor in France, Lolo found great freedom in the myriad of materials available in Vietnam and in the skill of the local craftsmen. Sculpture, photography, printmaking, and installation are all components of the versatile artist’s work.

His Hanoi Walls Series was one of the first to photograph and incorporate into art the lime painted walls of Hanoi with all manner of detritus, cell phone numbers, decay and time aging their seemingly timeless façades. Light fixtures, calendars, prints on aluminum all made use of these images of the beauty of everyday life. For the 2015 exhibition at Art Vietnam Gallery with artist Nguyen Quang Thang, the Life of Tet 2015, Zazar employs hundreds of these photos of the Hanoi walls, enlarged, minimized, made into contact sheets, then these photos are placed randomly on frames made of wood and steel fashioned into the 12 animals of the Zodiac. The series is trademark Zazar. Creative and full of mirth, they bring in the new year with a sense of promise and joy. Cinematic moments, they celebrate the artist’s love of his adopted homeland.

Currently the artist is creating sculptural light forms and lacquered portraits, continuing his inventive and cinematic constructions. He continues to exhibit in Vietnam and in France and divides his time between the two countries.