William Lazos

Home: Toronto, Ontario
Title: Penny III
Media: Acrylic on canvas / acrylique sur toile
Dimensions: 91.5 x 122 cm
Website: www.williamlazos.com

One of my themes is portrait/figurative subjects. As a photorealist artist my concepts are uniquely Canadian. In my portrait series I only paint friends and rely on my own interpretations of their personality and environments. In my recent painting of Penny, a good friend, the model reclines at my cottage’s rocky shoreline. Gazing at the sun and lake, she relaxes at the calmness and tranquility of the water and at the beauty of it’s natural surroundings. My artwork evokes a personification of human desire and nature. They are social and cultural scenarios of everyday life.

2011 People’s Choice (Toronto)

1964 Born in Cairo, Egypt
1969 Moved to Toronto, Ontario

EDUCATION:
1984-88 O.C.A, Ontario College of Art

AWARDS:
1987 Stanley Furnival tuition scholarship
1992 Portraiture, National Fine Art Competition
1997 People’s choice award, juried exhibition, Art Gallery of Peel.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2005 Real Paintings, Gallery Moos, Toronto, ON
2010 Transforming the Everyday into Light, Engine Gallery, Toronto, ON

GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
1995-97 Bruce R. Lewin Gallery, New York, New York
2003-2010 Plus One Gallery, London, England
2011 Armory show, New York, New York

COMMISSIONS:
Painted over 220 murals in Toronto and beyond
1993 Murals for artist Frank Stella at the Princes of Wales Theatre
1998, 2002 Murals for Rebecca Baird, Q.W.H.C. and Greater Toronto Airport Authority