Art After Dark: Art Outdoors

Acclaimed artist Chila Kumari Singh Burman MBE will transform Leicester Square Gardens into a vibrant hub of creativity.

For three nights, Burman’s dazzling, neon-lit installations titled 'There Is No Darkness in the Garden of Light', will illuminate the West End, with a brand-new piece created especially for Art After Dark. Her work delves deep into themes of representation, gender, and cultural identity, making this a must-see event for culture vultures and those looking to explore a new world of arts and culture.

Reflecting Chila Burman’s Indian heritage and inspired by London’s diverse communities, Chila Burman’s creations include radiant representations of Indian deities like Laxmi and Ganesh, a whimsical underwater scene with fish and seashells, as well as icons of South Asian femininity and a magical, Barbie-inspired figure.

_{Meet Chila Kumari Singh Burman}

A key figure in the British Feminist Arts movement, Chila Burman is celebrated for her radical feminist approach to art. Working across multiple mediums—printmaking, painting, installation, film. Having studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, Burman’s career spans decades, during which she has consistently explored the intersection of identity and culture.

Burman’s work has captured attention globally. In 2020, she was chosen for the Tate Britain Winter Commission, resulting in the hugely popular installation "Remembering A Brave New World". She has also created striking light installations for Covent Garden, Liverpool Town Hall, and Blackpool’s Grundy Art Gallery. In 2022, Burman was awarded an MBE for her outstanding contribution to the arts.

This year, Burman was a finalist for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square and is currently exhibiting “Same but only different” at the prestigious Venice Biennale.

Her work is part of numerous prestigious collections, including the Tate Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, Arts Council Collection, and the Devi Foundation in New Delhi.

Experience Burman’s bold, thought-provoking creations in the heart of the West End this October.

Burman’s installation also includes a hypnotic trail of fluorescent artworks exhibited around Leicester Square including neons embellishing the front of London Trocadero, The Hippodrome Casino, Westminster Reference Library and The Londoner hotel. Burman’s illuminated artworks include Dragon, Phoenix, Flamingos, Mermaid, Hanging Monkey and Ice-Cream Cone.

Reimagining the West End as an open-air gallery without walls, Art of London is curated and delivered in partnership with the public art and placemaking agency New Public.

Many thanks to our partners, Criterion Capital, The Londoner, The Hippodrome London, Westminster Reference Library.