Neermala Luckeenarain was born in Moka in a very modest family of six children and attended Notre Dame des Victoires RCA School for her primary education and the Loreto Convent School of Rose Hill for her secondary education. She started painting at the very early age of nine and which she developed as a hobby- painting flowers, fruits, drawing hens in the yard in the mud with a stick, and throwing coloured paper boats in pools of water and observing their movements.
WORKS.
She acquired a specialization in the field of Printmaking and though the technique was unknown in Mauritius, yet she persevered and has expanded it on a large scale at the University. She also collaborated with international artists.
Neermala works extensively on the theme of Women. She has stitched a dress of 12 meters high for a period of five months. It is handmade and pieces of coloured cloth were collected and stitched together and prints in serigraphy are seen which show faces of women. Beads, embroidery, buttons, zips, laces and ribbons are carefully included. She is very much influenced by the works of Miriam Schapiro who created works that were unapologetically ornate and also the way she embraced the decorative as a positive quality. Also, her “femmage” collages created from colorful fabrics inspired Neermala to work in a geometric and minimalistic style.
Her works reveals a lot about women; freedom of women, mother nature, women empowerment and women being lapidated. She also feels that a woman plays multi-role as a mother, daughter, sister and wife. She also nurtures her children, does the household chores and works outside the house as well. “Today, women are seen in all walks of life. A woman is neither a commodity nor a doll to be placed on the shelf to be admired. Women should be respected and made equal. Women must work hard, educate themselves and cultivate complete fearlessness and inner strength”. She strongly confirms.
Till today, she works on the theme of women and has realized various dresses in cloth, jute or sisal, plastic, paper, newspaper, nepali and tissue paper. Each work carries a different concept and a symbolic meaning behind. These materials are used because she is anti-pollution and likes to make use of anything that is being thrown or discarded, in an attempt to recycle these items.
She was decorated Honorary Citizen for the Town of Curepipe by the Municipality of Curepipe for Contribution in the field of Art in the year 2010. She continues to contribute as member of jury in the field of Art at national level. She helped Mr Reynolds Permal who is blind to successfully paint 55 works from 2017 – 2018. His exhibition was held in November 2018 at the Municipality of Beau Bassin-Rose-Hill. “I wanted Reynolds to paint and to pass on the message to the blind people that though a person has lost his vision, yet he can paint”. Neermala has also participated in many exhibitions abroad and at National Level. Her works are in various private collections- Morarjee Desai, Ex Prime Minister of India, Swaraj Sushma, Karan Singh, Prem Singh, Ex High Commissioner of India, Prime Minister’s office, VIP lounge of the Airport of Mauritius, the National library of Port Louis and many others.
In the year 2019, she received a National Award from the Ministry of Arts and Culture, Republic of Mauritius, in recognition of her valuable contribution in the field of Visual Arts.
Her contribution in the field is outstanding and with many more to come and I wish her success.
Dr ( Mrs) Neermala Luckeenarain joined us on Print Day in May 2020:
Posted by Print Day in My team, by Dr ( Mrs) Neermala Luckeenarain request.
We are so honored to have you join us!