Nicola Lazzari b.1957

Nicola Lazzari was born in Florence, Italy in 1957 and had a cosmopolitan upbringing surrounded by the Renaissance art of Italy. He currently lives and works in Pietrasanta near Lucca.

Trained as a painter and a sculptor, Lazzari fashions unusual narrative sculptures of a rare complexity and beauty. He incorporates selfportraits in many of the works, which have something of a renaissance quality to them, yet borrow also from Giacometti and other modern masters. Charming, intriguing, witty and exquisitely sculpted, his bronzes have a keen international following.

Lazzari’s work in bronze work embodies two different worlds. The tradition of representing objects from nature, along with a multitude of Italian and wider European artistic traditions. He is particularly inspired by the sixteenth century, such as the Paduan workshop bronzes. The compositions of his earlier bronze work shown in an exhibition in 2006 were likened to medieval fountain jesters as well as half-formed gargoyles of gothic edifices.

In Pietrasanta, Lazzari works alongside many craftsmen who, he has acknowledged, have imparted their wisdom to him throughout the years of working in collaboration. Patience while working is very much stressed by Lazzari, as he states, "these hands that work on the wax need to be sometimes warm, sometimes firm, and at other times cool, but always patient—for thought is fast but my hands are not".