Lala Meredith-Vula
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Lala Meredith-Vula (born 1966) is an English and Albanian Kosovian artist and photographer. In 1988 she was included in the
Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingd ...
-led Freeze exhibition. Lala is a professor at
De Montfort University De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body. The name De Montfort University was tak ...
, Leicester.


Life and work

Lala Meredith-Vula was born in
Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...
and moved to
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
in 1970. She attended
Trent University Trent University is a public liberal arts university in Peterborough, Ontario, with a satellite campus in Oshawa, which serves the Regional Municipality of Durham. Trent is known for its Oxbridge college system and small class sizes.
,
Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...
(1984–85) and
Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wo ...
(1985–88), then the University of Priština, Kosovo, for postgraduate studies. In 1988, she was one of the exhibitors in the exhibition '' Freeze'', organised by
Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingd ...
which showcased the work of many of the artists who were later to become known as the
Young British Artists The Young British Artists, or YBAs—also referred to as Brit artists and Britart—is a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London in 1988. Many of the YBA artists graduated from the BA Fine Art course at Goldsm ...
. Since then Lala has exhibited widely internationally and was recently part of the 201
Documenta 14 exhibition
From 1989, she has lectured at various colleges in the United Kingdom, United States and Kosovo. In 1995, she set up the first photography department at the
University of Tirana The University of Tirana ( sq, Universiteti i Tiranës, abbreviated UT) is a public university located at the central borough of Tirana 10 in Tirana, Albania. It was established as the ''State University of Tirana'' in 1957 through merging of f ...
,
Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
, and in 2000 a photography department at Priština University. A particularly significant experience for Meredith-Vula was a series of photographs in Kosovo showing haystacks built by Albanian farmers. The juxtaposition of her cosmopolitan art experience with her provincial origin, asking the question "What is art?", provided a resolution of the two: She has also photographed women in Turkish baths over a two-year period (6 months of which was gaining permission), and a series showing women standing and moving beneath the surface of water. She has explained this: :"Women and Water" is about the beauty and imperfection of the free body underwater. Many women feel they have been deformed by social influences, particularly in the West. In the water they are free to dissolve and re-appear as a part of nature both classical and expressive. Her work can be found in a range of major art collections including, but not limited to: Arts Council of Britain, Arthur Andersen Collection, Centre of Photography in Geneva, Collezione La Gaia, Doria Pamphilj Gallery Collection, Doria Pamphilj Palace Museum, The Teseco Foundation, The British Council Collection. Lala now lectures at De Montfort University in Leicester


Haystacks

Lala has been photographing farmers' haystacks in Eastern Europe since 1989. An on-going series that has been exhibited at the Photographer's Gallery, London, Croatian Fine Art Society, Zagreb, Kosova Art Gallery, Kosova, documenta 14 in Kassel and Marubi Museum, Albania.


Blood Memory

Lala followed and photographed the Blood Feud Reconciliation movement in Kosova in 1990 and 1991 making a series of photographs shown in Kosova Art Gallery in 2015. She was researcher on a BBC documentary film ''Under the Sun'' (1991) - Broadcast in 1992 on BBC 1


Awards

*1997 London Art Board's "Individual Artists Award". *1998 "Special Jury Prize", PhotoSynkria Festival, Greece. *1998 "Flash Art" Prize, Onufri '98, National Gallery, Albania. *2001 Sargent Fellowship, British School, Rome, Italy. *2002 "Paul Hamlyn Award" nominee. *2006 Bryan Robertson Trust Artist Award.


Notes and references


External links


Lala Meredith-Vula website
* ttp://www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/academic-staff/art-design-humanities/lala-meredith-vula/lala-meredith-vula.aspx De Montfort University staff. Photography and videobr>Alberto Peola Gallery articleKosovo's 2.0. article on Lala Meredith-VulaWisdom today and forever. Solo exhibition by Lala Meredith-Vula Curated by Monika SzewczykArts Club of Chicago exhibition article 2018
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meredith-Vula, Lala 1966 births Living people British women artists Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London Alumni of Nottingham Trent University British contemporary artists Young British Artists Yugoslav emigrants to the United Kingdom Albanian artists