LALA

Edmonton, Canada

LALA [Lacey And Layla Art] is a professional collaboration of public muralists composed of artists Lacey Jane Wilburn and Layla Folkmann, born in Edmonton, Alberta in the heart of Treaty 6 territory. Since 2010, the duo have completed over 140 public mural interventions across Canada, France, Honduras, Iceland and Uganda. Specialising in site-specific public creations that respond directly to local communities, they have received over $150,000.00 in grants from provincial and municipal funding.

Along the way, the women leave their mark in the form of expressive realism to capture local people, culture and the allure of mother nature. They utilize bold colour schematics and heightened light effects and bridge their realism with a dramatic contemporary aesthetic. Their art is a celebration of everyday heroes from local communities, from a 2021 mural memorialising Canadian punk legend, Mr Chi Pig, to a 2020 mural collaborating with local elementary school children for the Start Up Underpass  Program in Toronto, and a 2016 mural at Edmonton’s Rogers Place Arena celebrating the faces of Boyle Street Community Services for the unhoused. They also draw inspiration from indigenous flora and fauna to honour the boundless beauty of mother nature.

Together, the duo studied Fine Art at Grant MacEwan University in 2009, and completed her BFA’s with Great Distinction at Concordia University in Montreal in 2016 after a semester abroad at the L’École d’Enseignement Supérieur d’Art de Bordeaux, in France. Collectively, they have received numerous academic awards including the Vancouver University Women’s Club Scholarship (2020 & 2021), The Yves Gaucher Prize in Studio Arts (2016), the D. L. Stevenson Colour Scholarship for Academic Excellence (2014), the Francis Henderson Klingle Scholarship for Fine Art (2009), The Women’s Canadian Club of Edmonton Award in honour of Helen Saunders (2009) and 2021 Edmonton Artists Trust Fund Award. In 2022, Wilburn obtained her Masters in Fine Art from Emily Carr University of Art and Design where she now works as a professor of painting and drawing.