Lacey Jane Wilburn (b. 1988, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) is a contemporary artist most notable for her vibrant and dramatic large-scale paintings, with subjects ranging from empty houses to stray dogs and architectural decay. Primarily a realist painter, Wilburn’s practice-based research aligns somewhere between a deep reverence for 19th century classical realism and a saturated post-modern glitch aesthetic.
Wilburn holds an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver (2022), complemented by a BFA with Great Distinction from Concordia University in Montreal (2016), a Fine Art Diploma from MacEwan University in Edmonton (2009), and a semester abroad at L’École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux in France (2015). She has participated in over 45 exhibitions since 2009, was shortlisted for the Centre for International Contemporary Art (CICA) 2025 International Art Award, received the University Women’s Club of Vancouver Scholarship in 2022 and 2021, and won the Yves Gaucher Prize in Studio Arts in 2016, the D. L. Stevenson Colour Scholarship for Academic Excellence in 2014, the Francis Henderson Klingle Scholarship for Fine Art in 2009, The Barbara and John Poole Family Endowed Fund for the Arts in 2009, and the Jason Lang Scholarship for Excellence in 2007. In 2010, she and artist Layla Folkmann formed the urban art duo LALA [Lacey And Layla Art] who have developed over 250 public mural interventions across Canada, France, Honduras, Uganda and Iceland, and have received over $250,000 in grants from federal and municipal funding. Wilburn now lives in Whistler, Canada on the ancestral territories of the Squamish and Lil’wat nations, working on her painting practice, raising her baby boy, and teaching fine art part time at Emily Carr University in Vancouver.