Chila Kumari Burman’s time as a student at Leeds Polytechnic from 1977 to 1981 happened to be at a time when so many exciting social and cultural developments were taking place. Among other events, Leeds was a city which was beginning to be a major centre for Punk’s revolutions in music, fashion and lifestyle making her time at the Polytechnic particularly exciting and productive.

Chila’s studies in printmaking and the opportunity it provided to establish a personal visual language resulted in a successful application to Slade School of Art post-graduate studies in printmaking and permanent residence in London. For the next forty years she has been working across the UK and abroad leading workshops in printmaking, presenting her own shows and taking part in group exhibitions leading up to the Tate Winter project of 2021 where she created her first series of neon works.

Over the past two years these have taken her and her work to a wide variety of venues including this project here in Leeds, animating Leeds Art Gallery with her vibrant neon works for Light Night.