STAR BREWERY GALLERY
LEWES
CURRENT ONLINE EXHIBITION
Heather Chamberlain
“Finding the Thread”
1st June-14th June
Heather Chamberlain will be exhibiting in the Gallery when we can open.
The coronavirus has affected us all and the Star Brewery Gallery is no exception. We will continue to bring you interesting and vibrant visual art online until we can open the Gallery. We wish you all the best in these difficult times and offer you this opportunity to escape into the world of art and the imagination.
​To purchase any of the works, send an email to: ​starbrewerygallery@gmail.com
UPCOMING ONLINE EXHIBITIONS
Andrew Whittuck
A Performance
8th June-14th June
Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd, 1967
Helen Mirren, Film Still, 1963
East Sussex College Lewes
15th June - 28th June
Peter Vincent
Town Country Coast
29 June – 12 July
PAST EXHIBITIONS
Lindy Dunbar & Joseph Davey
“Östersund to Sussex Refigured”
18th May-31th May
Lindy Dunbar and Joseph Davey are two of the artists who will be exhibiting in the Gallery when we can open. View The Online Exhibition
Paul Newland
Land and Memory
4th May-17th May
Paul Newland is one of the artists who will be exhibiting in the Gallery when we can open. View Paul Newland's Online Exhibition.
Tom Walker
The Wanderer In Doubt Goes West
Once the Gallery can open we will be putting on this exhibition which will be Tom's last exhibition in Lewes. View Tom Walker's Gallery.
ONLINE OPENING EXHIBITION
PETER MESSER | ANDREW FITCHETT | TOM BENJAMIN
INTERVIEWS
Interviews with the artists by journalist John May
John May
Tom Benjamin
Andrew Fitchett
Peter Messer
ABOUT
This delightful visual arts exhibition space, first established as the Star Gallery in the late 1980s and later known as the Hop Gallery, has a history of hosting exhibitions by local, regional, national and international artists and of showcasing both successful and established artists and up-and-coming talented artists and makers.
​This multifunctional space is ideal for displaying not only traditional and contemporary art and sculpture but also installations and craftwork of various kinds. We aim to stage an exciting diverse programme of exhibitions to suit all tastes and pockets.
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Situated in the centre of Lewes, the vibrant county town of East Sussex, the gallery is housed in the renovated 18th century Star Brewery building with its ancient brickwork and massive beams that is occupied by artists, framers, potters, filmmakers and many others.
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The gallery is also a short walking distance from a wide range of Lewes’ other attractions which include the Norman castle and an interesting array of atmospheric coffee shops, pubs and restaurants as well as bookshops, antique markets and unique independent shops.
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PETER MESSER
​'The Star Brewery Gallery has been at the centre of the art life of Lewes since its inception as the Star Gallery in the late 1980s. Over the ensuing years, under changing management and name, it has shown a huge range of artists and craftspeople including Paula Rego, Sir Hugh Casson, Christopher Le Brun and John Skelton to name just a few. I have consistently exhibited at the Star since its earliest days and have never found it to be less than an enjoyable and rewarding experience.
Neeta Pedersen worked there for five years as assistant to Gallery Owner, Curator and Director Angie Osborne under its spell as the Hop Gallery. I feel she really understood the Gallery’s ambitious attitude to the arts without losing sight of its place at the heart of the extensive local arts community. I, and many others, were very heartened to hear that she was taking over after a short period when, under other management, it had diverged from this and had become lost to view for many of us. I feel she has all the right capacities to make the gallery a great success. In addition to her five years practical experience in the space, she is a respected and successful artist in her own right and a well known and popular member of the community.
Due to the current unprecedented health emergency, the timing of Neeta’s takeover could not have been worse but she is attracting enormous goodwill from artists and supporters. The general feeling is that if anyone has the character, resilience and will to bring the Gallery successfully back to the centre of Lewes cultural life, it is Neeta.'
01/04/20
ANDREW FITCHETT
'We were very disappointed when only a week away from the opening night, we realised the coronavirus crisis meant we would have to postpone the launch exhibition of The Star Brewery Gallery. To our amazement, Neeta refused to give in and within days, pulled together a very presentable online Star Brewery Gallery, worked out a social media campaign and launched the whole thing online and on time. The online Star Brewery Gallery has given me great publicity and healthy sales beyond my expectations. Neeta really has taken very good care of us and I feel very lucky to be represented by such a dynamic gallery.'
09/04/2020
I had just taken over the Gallery in the Star Brewery building in Lewes, and was very excited to be able to launch it with an amazing exhibition by the three exceptional artists Peter Messer, Andrew Fitchett and Tom Benjamin. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic and sadly I was forced to close.
I was frustrated as I had worked so hard to get the gallery ready. I had the perfect opening show and the Gallery was booked up for the whole of 2020. I was now faced with the possibility of losing the Gallery that I loved so much before it had even opened.
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I felt in my heart that I could not allow myself to lose the Gallery so I thought that, with my web-design knowledge, I could build an online Gallery and launch the Opening Show on the website instead - which proved to be a great success. I will now also be showing Online Exhibitions of the works of the other artists who had booked in for a show in 2020. I also plan to have themed group-shows open to a wide variety of artists.
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I want to thank you all for the support you gave me when I took over the Gallery, and for your enthusiastic interest in the Online Exhibitions. I now need your help to KEEP THE GALLERY ALIVE and MAINTAIN THE ONLINE EXHIBITIONS for the benefit of our community.
HELP KEEP THE GALLERY ALIVE
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I do not have the expected income from the Gallery to keep the space and sustain the online gallery. We would welcome help from further Patrons and would be most grateful for any donations. Any amount is greatly appreciated.
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Many thank
Neeta Pedersen
Gallery Director
TOM BENJAMIN
I was approached by Neeta last year to see if I would be interested in exhibiting in the opening exhibition of the Star Brewery Gallery along with Andrew Fitchett and Peter Messer. It wasn’t a difficult decision. Although we haven't exhibited together for some time we have had a series of shows together in the past and I admire their work and I thought it would interesting to do it again. I also have a long history with the gallery and had some of my first solo shows when Pat and Mike Cooper ran it. I have always liked the character of the space, its beautifully lit and you can get surprisingly large amount of work on the walls. I also had a joint show of mine and my late father's paintings, which was a special occasion for me as we never had the chance to exhibit together in his lifetime and it attracted a lot of interest.
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It’s been a pleasure working with Neeta, we have had to be light on our feet as we've tried to keep pace with the rapidly changing restrictions imposed by the crisis. Neeta quickly thought of making the show an online event and we've combined in depth interviews, short films and images of the work to give people as rich an experience as possible. The response to the show has been tremendous and we are all committed to putting on a physical show in the gallery when we are on the other side of this challenging time.
09/04/2020
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Read the article published in the Argus about the Gallery here
“My aim as Director of the new Star Brewery Gallery is to revitalise its reputation as being one of the significant and prestigious visual arts venues in the South East by putting on a wide diversity of stimulating and interesting solo or group shows. Thematic shows by guest curators will also feature as part of our creative offering.
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​Our Selection Panel will help me assess a broad range of work in many mediums - painting, illustration, art installations, photography, sculpture and crafts – and choose what we feel is most suited to our exhibition premises.
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​I want visitors to the new gallery to feel welcomed into this warm and beautiful aesthetic space.”
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Neeta Pedersen
Gallery Director
​PATRONS:
Stewart J Dalby | Sandra Banks | Andy Banks | Edward Mawby
Neeta Pedersen, who is an artist in her own right, has a special relationship to this artistic space having worked there for almost five years as gallery assistant to the then Gallery Owner, Curator and Director Angie Osborne when is was known as Hop Gallery.
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Neeta is a multimedia artist with a distinctive style that comes from her unusual heritage, her extensive travels and her rich visual imagination. She has expressed herself in paintings, sculptures, digital art, illustration and animation. Her work, which ranges from the highly decorative and romantic to the stark and explicit, has gained her an international reputation.
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Born in Mumbai to unknown parents, she was adopted at the age of six months by a Danish couple from Aarhus. After her primary and secondary schooling in Denmark, she left home at 17 to travel to Israel and then subsequently travelled to India and Nepal for six months to absorb and observe the culture she came from. She has also visited France, Germany, Central Europe and Scandinavia.
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​In 1997, she moved to Lewes to study at Brighton College of Technology, where she gained a BTEC National Diploma in Multimedia. In 1999, she moved to the US to enrol in the Total Immersion Intensive Workshop at the New York Film Academy and, in 2005, gained a BA (Hons) in Animation from the University of Westminster in London.
CONTACT
Sign up for our Newsletter: starbrewerygallery@gmail.com
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ADDRESS: Star Brewery Gallery, Star Brewery, Castle Ditch Lane, (off Fisher Street) Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 1YJ
​EMAIL:
All submission or gallery hire inquiries must be done by email.
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Find Us
There is a direct train from London Victoria to Lewes and bus services from Brighton to Lewes. Catch the bus No 28 or 29 which takes you to Lewes High Street. Get off at the Lewes Crown Court and walk down Fisher Street where you will see the Star Brewery building on your left. There are two different entrances to the gallery.
The Star Brewery Gallery does not have designated parking. There are car parking facilities within the town which allows all-day parking, payment by the meter.