Born in Larissa in 1945, Yorgos Lazongas studied architecture at the Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki (1963-1970) before leaving for Paris in 1976 to study painting on a scholarship from
the French government.
In his work Lazongas focuses on the gesture, on the processes by which matter is transformed and
the experiential relationship with materials, but also explores the philosophical dimension of notions
such as archetype, palimpsest, fragment, life, death and time. His painting is experiential, and its
content philosophical and existential.
From 1975 to 1999, he taught painting in the School of Architecture of the Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki. In 2008 he was elected Professor of Painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts were
he teached until 2012. He is considered an important Greek abstract expressionist painters of his
generation. In 2008 he was commissioned a permanent, public installation for Athens Metro.
Yorgos Lazongas has held over 12 solo exhibitions and, has participated in numerous group shows
at Museums like Centre George Pompidou in Paris, France, the National Museum of Contemporary
Art Greece (EMST), the Benaki Museum, Greece, the Hellenic Foundation for Culture in Alexandria,
Egypt among others. In 1970 he took part in a group exhibition at the Goethe Institut in Thessaloniki
and in 1972 was awarded first prize in a competition organized by the Hellenic American Union. He
presented his work in individual and prominent international exhibitions such as the Biennale de
Paris (1980), the Lisbon Biennial (1981), the Wroclaw Trienale (1981), Art et Poésie at the Centre
Pompidou (1981), Emerging Images at Europalia (Antwerp, 1982), the Sao Paolo Biennial (1983),
and the Salon de Montrouge (Paris, 1997). In 2006, a retrospective exhibition of his drawings was
held at the Benaki Museum and the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art and a monograph
published with texts by Nanos Valaoritis, Titos Patrikios, Dimitris Maronitis and others. His work is
acquired by important Greek and international public and private collections like EMST and Sotiris
Felios Collection. He passed away in Athens in 2022.