Lewes’ Star Brewery Gallery once again switches online for new exhibition

She is exhibiting her own work from November 13-29.

“Once more I found myself in a lockdown situation, unable to open the gallery for a month and having to postpone and rearrange my existing bookings. It also meant there was a gap in our online exhibitions so several people suggested to me that it would be a great idea, as well as being both appropriate and practical, to stage a show of some of my own recent work which includes many art prints and book illustrations as well as a range of bags and scarves carrying my artwork.

“It’s a great joy to show off my work in this way after a very difficult first-year of managing a gallery in the middle of a pandemic. We have already had some great shows and I’m looking forward with excitement to Peter Messer’s show which is booked in for Friday, December 4-Friday, December 18.”

It’s been a remarkable first year for the gallery. In July, after the first lockdown, it rolled back the clock four months and started again, reopening with exactly the exhibition it was going to open with when lockdown struck. The first closure was a bitter blow for the new venture on a site with a long gallery history under various names. But Neeta quickly switched to online exhibitions, weathered the storm and was able, at last, to open her doors in the summer. Now comes the second lockdown – and this time she is drawing on her own work.

Neeta is a Danish/British/Indian artist, illustrator, animator and textile designer, but her work also involves building websites and creating graphics.

“I like to explore the world of my imagination, which I illustrate in my personal artwork, which is dominated by feminine sensuality, sexuality, energy, emotion, dreams and fantasies. I express these feelings in many media including paintings, sculptures, digital art and animation.

“My work ranges from the highly decorative and romantic to the stark and explicit. My work has been shown in galleries in Denmark and the UK including London’s Cork Street and is held in private collections in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Canada, USA and England.

“My life experiences have had a big effect on my artistic career. I was born in Mumbai and adopted by a Danish couple at the age of six months. I grew up in Aarhus but left home at 17 when I travelled to Israel and subsequently travelled to India and Nepal for six months to absorb and observe the culture I came from. My travels have also taken me to France, Germany, Central Europe, Scandinavia as well as Boston and New York in the US. In 1997, I moved to Lewes and studied at Brighton College of Technology, where I gained a BTEC National Diploma in multimedia.

“In 1999, I enrolled in the total immersion intensive workshop at the New York Film Academy and, in 2005, I gained a BA (Hons) in animation from the University of Westminster in London. My graduation film Disharmonious Coincidence was subsequently screened at film festivals in London, Italy, Japan, France and Romania and was selected by British Council Film to be included in their British Films Directory.”