Lala Meredith-Vula


Lala Meredith-Vula is an English and Albanian artist. She was part of the Damien Hirst-led Freeze exhibition in 1988 after her graduation from Goldsmiths College, University of London. Lala is a professor at De Montfort University, Leicester.

Life and work

Lala Meredith-Vula was born in Sarajevo and moved to England in 1970. She attended Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham and Goldsmiths College, University of London, then the University of Prishtina, Kosova, for postgraduate studies.
In 1988, she was one of the exhibitors in the exhibition Freeze, organised by Damien Hirst which showcased the work of many of the artists who were later to become known as the Young British Artists. Since then Lala has exhibited widely internationally and was part of both the 48th Venice Biennale and the 2017 .
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, Albania, 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, and a series showing women standing and moving beneath the surface of water. She has explained this:
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, Fondazione Teseco per lArte, The British Council Collection.

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 - Broadcast in 1992 on BBC 1

Awards