In 1983 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship,[3] with which he studied metal engraving in New York and Valdottavo-Luca, Italy, with Luis Camnitzer.
[1] He represented his country at the Venice Biennale in 1986 and at the São Paulo Biennial in 1981 and 1994 and received numerous national and international awards.
[2][4] In 1988, Lara was distinguished by the Fund for Artists Colonies, United States, and in 2001 he received the Figari Award in recognition of his career.
[5] Lara's work is in a naturalist style – large canvases in which the paint drips and fades into the margins, creating an aura of dreamlike unreality.
He composes still lifes in which he integrates various recovered objects such as broken dolls, cardboard, wool balls, belts of pre-Columbian fabrics, boards, and brooms.