JOHN LOOKAS
The bas-reliefs of JOHN LOOKAS anchor ancestral know-how in a unique contemporary approach. His passion for ancient heritage, which he has observed since his childhood in his hometown Nîmes, and his sensitivity for the plant world elegantly nourish his work.
With extensive experience as a facade designer in the South of France, he chose to further develop the possibilities of lime mortars and to devote himself fully to his activity as a decorative artist in Paris. Also involved in the restoration of historic monuments, he perfected the process which today constitutes his core business.
On its large diaphanous walls, he creates frescoes and decorations with lime, paying particular attention to the living world, crystallizing a variety of trees, plants and flowers. Through this limestone material, the artist reactivates a heritage of ancestral gestures and thinks of the bas-relief beyond the "decorative", between past and modernity, softness and radicality, shadow and light.
The sculptor is currently tackling a series of projects in France and internationally. He develops a search for form through drawing, which finds its full expression in the centuries-old binder and the space it invests, and whose possibilities he revisits. The artist then reconciles age-old techniques and contemporary creation, reality and poetry.