LO - Laurent Torregrossa

LO (Laurent Torregrossa) was born in 1964 in Mount St. Martin (France). He spends his childhood in Gorcy, a small town in Lorraine near Longwy. The drawing has always been part of his life. Younger, he dreamed of becoming a cartoonist. Surprisingly, he studied in micromechanics.

At 18, he left for the French Riviera, to be a camp counsellor and a seasonal worker. The dream of his youth, always present in his mind, for a moment fades away for the benefit of waves, wind and sea, but finally leads him back to a School of Fine Arts (École des Beaux-Arts) in Toulon.

Laurent Torregrossa, nicknamed "LO" (diminutive of Laurent), shares his summers and winters between windsurfing on the French Riviera and skiing in the Alps.

It is only in 1989, when he puts the final touch on his first fresco in Giens, that he really thinks of a career as a painter. He gets to be known first in Europe, where he has a great success with his marines and his hyperrealism. In 1997, he gets married to a Canadian woman and a year later, in 1998, he makes art exhibitions in galleries of the Old Quebec. He settles for good in Canada in December 2000. In October 2006, he moves to CapRouge, a western district of Quebec city. In that period of time, he receives his Canadian citizenship. Since 2012, he lives alternately in Cap-Rouge (Quebec) and in Ottawa (Ontario) which is his second source of inspiration after the St. Lawrence River.

His brilliant professional career resulted in several magazine covers, articles in newspapers, interviews on radio and on TV, etc. Since 1989, he exhibited in numerous international art fairs and international art exhibitions that are among the ten biggest art shows in the world. There are therefore several press articles and art show publications in which we find his name. He participated on a timely and ongoing basis, as much as a solo artist than within a collective, as much as in art galleries and in other public places in Canada and in Europe. He has been honoured with numerous awards and distinctions during his career. He has been named "Academician" by the International Academy of Fine Arts of Quebec (Académie Internationale des Beaux-Arts du Québec - AIBAQ) in 2007. The same year, he gets his membership at the Figurative Arts Institute (Institut des Arts Figuratifs - IAF).

Besides these associations, since 1997, he is a member of ArtZoom (Collectif International d'Artistes ArtZoom - CIAAZ) as well as a member of The Free Arts of Longwy (Les Arts Libres de Longwy).

The artist has never lost sight of his Lorraine roots. Therefore, he never hesitated to exhibit in his native region. In 2009, during an international exhibition in Vauban, Longwy, one of his works has been reproduced on a 3 x 4 meter canvas. His works have served as book covers for many authors of the region of Longwy. Some of his artworks have even created an international buzz on the Net. Moreover, for several years, he made art exhibitions in France, Belgium and Canada with Bernard Hild, a multidisciplinary artist of Mount St.Martin.

LO is listed in various rating guides, both in North America and Europe. Since 2003, he is present in the Akoun's guide, published under the editions of the Cote de l'Amateur where is indexed the rating of more than 350 000 artists of all countries and all time.

LO lives exclusively on his painting and makes between 12 and 25 exhibitions per year on two continents. Until today, he made more than 650 art exhibitions (France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, USA, Spain, etc.). He celebrated his 25 years of career in 2014. Until now, he exhibited in two Canadian museums.

In 2015, he made three important personal exhibitions entitled "The Odyssey" (The Odyssey, The Departure / The Odyssey, The Adventure / The Odyssey, The Arrival) which led him to present a retrospective of career, one of the most important exhibition made in Canada since he lives there. Ninety paintings have been presented for the occasion. A real challenge for this artist who often takes up to 120 hours to paint a hyperrealist artwork. For this very special exhibition, all the paintings available on the market were collected in one single place for one month in Quebec City.

Today, LO is a world reference in terms of realism and hyperrealism. He now lives alternately in Quebec and in Ontario.