Deepa Mann-Kler

Deepa Mann-Kler is a multi-disciplinary award winning artist; Chief Executive of Neon; Festival Director for Belfast XR Festival; Executive Producer for Virtual Production at Aura Studios; Visiting Professor in Immersive Futures at Ulster University and a member of BAFTA Connect.

As a light artist while she works primarily in neon her practice also includes painting, drawing and photography. In her latest show 2023 "The Metaverse & Me," freely available on iOS and Play Store apps, she combines augmented reality and painting for the first time.

Mann-Kler explores concepts of belonging and identity by creating artwork that is deeply rooted in the communities surrounding her. Through this process she reveals her fears, hopes, joy and love in brutally honest work that strives to connect with society at an insistently individual and humane level, where the personal becomes political. Deepa Mann-Kler has exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions in China, America, Germany and Ireland. In 2023 neon dogs has been exhibited across the UK; in 2020 shoefiti featured in Light Up Leicester; in 2019 neon dogs and shoefiti and 2016 neon dogs formed part of Lumiere Festivals run by Artichoke in Durham and London. In 2013 her neon work Teenage Kicks and dogs were part of Lumiere, run by Artichoke and commissioned by Derry/Londonderry UK City of Culture as their closing public art festival; in the same year she also won Brilliant, run by Artichoke and was also awarded the Individual Artist Award by the Culture Company. She is the recipient of numerous Arts Council, Future Screens and NI Screen awards. From 2011 to 2013 she was artist-in-residence with the Belfast playwright Martin Lynch. In 1984 she won the Olympus & Daily Mirror Young Photographer of the Year.

Her company Neon harnesses the power of immersive technologies to create authentic augmented and virtual reality narrative driven experiences. As Director and Producer, Neon has won multiple awards most lately with Discover ME which shares real life stories of people living with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Long Covid. Neon launched AR Peace Wall and AR Street Art apps freely available on iOS and Play Store. A TEDx speaker “Being Human” and thought leader Deepa regularly keynotes on the intersection of storytelling, digital transformation, technical innovation, leadership, inclusion, ethics, bias, data, AI, design and creativity.

Awards: Royal Television Society Finalist RETNE “Interactive Entertainment” 2017. WinTech Series Finalist “Tech Start Up Of the Year” 2018. Digital DNA Finalist “Tech For Good” Talking Sense AR App 2020. Discover ME 2022 Global Shorts; Best Shorts Competition; Pinewood Lift Off Global Network; Delta International Film Festival.

www.discoverneon.com | www.deepamannkler.com | www.belfastxrfestival.com