Meet Lorr Volatier | Owner & Creator of 333 Gallery ~ The Subterranean Forest

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lorr Volatier and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lorr, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I moved to Los Angeles in 2018 as a Production Designer, I started working on tv shows like American Horror Story, Jack Ryan, & Ratched. Until the beginning of 2020 when I decided I wanted to go independent and work on music videos and commercials only instead. Then covid hit ~ I realized my love was for making sets for people rather than for productions. So I decided I would make a set for people to enjoy, and began designing what I would later call an Immersive Installation. I found a space in Dtla that I turned into a gallery (333 Gallery) built it out myself with the help of a few friends. Designing, painting and building everything in 3 short months. I had my opening in May 2022. The immersive installation feels like walking into a painting, where you are invited to reconnect with your inner child, through a multi sensory experience. There are games, instruments, and no rules about not touching the art. 5 months after opening FeverUp offered me a partnership to take over my marketing and ticket sales. Since then we have been selling lots of tickets & and have been able to host many beautiful people and magic moments in the space. For the future of my business~ I hope to create many more experiences at 333 Gallery for people to feel safe, creative, loved, and inspired.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I would say what sets me apart from others is my background. I am a Third Culture Kid, born in Belgium, raised in the Netherlands, French citizen, lived in Singapour, England, and America. I have been around many different people & cultures throughout my life. I moved to the US to study production design at a school in North Carolina. I graduated with a BFA in Filmmaking specialty Production Design. I’m most proud of the range of work I’ve done so far in my career, from being an art PA on American Horror Story, to set decorator on music videos for Megan Thee Stallion, to Production Designing Photoshoot campaigns with YG & KSwiss, Designing Stage performances for Travis Barker, Machine Gun Kelly, and Avril Lavigne (childhood idol!), to NOW opening my own gallery, and being on world tour as Stage decorator for SZA’s new album SOS.

I’m very proud to have gotten here as an immigrant, and the only one of my family on this side of the world. The visa process was/ is not easy but I am blessed to still be here and will continue to fight to stay here until life takes me elsewhere.

The lessons I have learned along the way;
1) Community is everything!!! My chosen family here in the USA support me to my highest potential. I feel loved, cared for, and invisible with their support. It means so much to know you have a crew that’s got your back, it really allows you to take those risks and know that if you fail you won’t be alone to pick up the pieces & try again.
2) Patience is important~ learnt to have it with yourself first, then extended to others.
3) Healing is always necessary, and a continuous process. It’s inherent to our evolution in our direct family lineage & also for our human family lineage.
4) Balancing your masculine and feminine energies, recognizing them, what voice each of them has is so important. Work & rest, tension & release. Balance!!! 🙂
5) Meditation/ listening to your breath, noticing your mind as a third party observer is so important to find a healthy distance from the drama & chatter in the world and remember your true essence and what your message is! / what you want to say to others.
6) Betting on yourself will always reel rewards. In either lessons, monetarily, expansion or all 3.

I want people to know that my heart’s desire is to create spaces for you to feel transported to a different dimension while simultaneously coming back home to yourself. I want to inspire others to follow their passions, & to be of service to humanity.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would pick them up from LAX (cause I’m that kind of friend). I would take them to eat at my favorite restaurant by the Airport ADUKÉ’s KITCHEN, delicious Nigerian food. Then go back to mine and play board games for hours & eat snacks in my dream of an apartment. The following day I would take them to my gallery, give them the whole experience and show them what I’ve created. Then we would get lunch at TOCAYA ORGANICA, modern Mexican cuisine I would get the fajita burrito with vegan picadillo. Then to the Vista Hermosa park to lay in the sun. Then at night we would go to The Magic Castle in Hollywood to see magic shows by the one and only Jeff Kaylor. The following day we would get brunch at The Grain Cafe, I would get the two cheese crepe. It’s an amazing vegan Mexican restaurant, I celebrate my birthday and Christmas there every year. I would get their watermelon spritz. Then we would go to Malibu beach or Dockweihler beach to have a bonfire and invite a bunch of friends. The following day we would walk through Melrose hitting my favorite vintage stores like Wasteland, 2nd street vintage, and Buffalo exchange. Then get some amazing Indian food at Curry Kingdom in West Hollywood, and watch a drag show at hamburger Mary’s across the street. The following day I would drive us to Joshua Tree to my favorite airbnb called Hicksville which is a bunch of super designer trailers in the desert, that’s been catered with loads of games, from archery, to massive ball pit, pool, to mini golf, and a vintage arcade game room. We would spend 1 night there, head back to LA. Then hit my favorite parties No-Zar or Pangea to dance to Afro beats & Amapiano music. The following day we would go to Los Feliz outdoor market to visit my friend’s booth who sells hand dyed silk pieces brand is Kasiopya , then get vegan sushi at the best place called Gokoku. That’s all 🙂

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
All of my sweet amazing friends who pushed me to follow this dream, and got dirty with me when it came time to paint/ build/ light etc. My best friend, and #1 motivating queen + lighting extrordinaire Reagan Frazier. My artist friends; Salma Soliman, Melian Junius, Clayton Beisner, Naïka Richard, Hannah Menakaya., Alex Pardo The book that inspired the title of the immersive Installation and my journey as a woman is “Women who run with the wolves” by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. Shoutout to my mom for the painting Genes (Melanie Pagès). The city that raised me Den Haag (Netherlands), and my country France. Thank you for Tyler Madsen for creating a warehouse collective of artists where my Gallery lives in Downtown Los Angeles.

Website: https://www.333gallery.art/

Instagram: @lorrvolatier

Other: Tickets to my gallery: https://feverup.com/m/124466 Production design work website: https://www.lorrvolatier.com/ 333 Gallery Instagram: @333_Gallery_LA

Image Credits
Kaelan Barowsky