Paintings by Peter Messer is the new exhibition at Lewes’ Star Brewery Gallery

It is Peter Messer’s first exhibition at Star Brewery Gallery since the highly successful You Drink a Bit and Watch the Ghosts in 2020.

Neeta Pedersen, who runs the gallery, said: “He is well known for his intense tempera paintings, frequently set in, around or parallel with his home town of Lewes. Whilst the settings are often recognisable, the implied narratives and tensions create an idiosyncratic world that sometimes unsettles and occasionally amuses.

“His work is filled with arrested moments pinned down within a luminously deadpan egg tempera technique and his intent and watchful paintings, for all their quiet realism, demonstrate that the unseen exists and has properties.

“He works in a world ignored by many of us until he, deftly and persuasively, reminds us of it.”

Born in 1954, Peter Messer studied Fine Art at the University of Brighton.

He works mainly in egg tempera on a traditional gesso ground and has exhibited in solo and group shows in the UK, US, Germany and France.

His work has been frequently exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and the New English Art Club and he has been a finalist in the Hunting, Garrick Milne, Lyn Painter-Stainers and Singer and Friedlander Prize exhibitions.

In 1998 he won the Sotheby’s-sponsored Chichester Art Prize and in 2000 was commissioned to provide 12 paintings for the Sussex Book of Revelations, an Arts Council Millennium Project which toured Sussex libraries.

In 2004 he completed a commission for the House of Lords.

Have you read: Hastings panto announced

In Pictures: A bird's eye view of Brighton | SussexWorld (sussexexpress.co.uk)

Have you read: Exploring the great joys of the South Downs WayHave you read: Titanic The Musical heads to Southampton

Have you read: So many reasons to celebrate as Chichester's Pallant House Gallery marks 40 yearsHave you read: Search begins for 2022 Sussex Young Musician

Have you read: The Art of Chichester: 60 Years of Creativity - major new exhibition

Have you read: Everything you need to know: Chichester Festival Theatre summer 2022

Culture Spark set to ignite Chichester district arts and community celebration

Celebrating one of Britain’s most beloved performers, Dame Vera Lynn

A book about loss and hope

A remarkable tale of recovery from a rare form of cancer

New book inspired by days out with the family

Have you read: Chichester Festival Theatre unveils 60th-anniversary 2022 summer season