HISTORY
History
Light Art Works (LAW) was founded in 2025 by Clare Brew. For 30 years, Clare has worked behind the artworks, hands-on with the wiring and installation of neon pieces.
Our mission is to apply our unique technical expertise to the field of art conservation. We collaborate with artists, collectors, and institutional conservators to develop pragmatic and sustainable conservation strategies. By addressing the specific challenges of material obsolescence and technological change, we aim to ensure the long-term preservation of significant luminous artworks for future generations.
Neon lights do not exist without their makers. They are not simply designed; they are crafted by skilled hands. We believe the role of the conservator is not only to preserve the neon itself, but also to safeguard the conditions that allow it to exist. Ultimately, conserving neon art means embracing its fragility and aging, while ensuring that the knowledge required to create it is preserved.
Next generation examining neon.
‘Impermeabile’ by Mario Merz
CONSERVATION IS NOT ABOUT MAKING SOMETHING LOOK NEW; IT IS ABOUT PRESERVING THE EVIDENCE OF ITS HISTORY AND THE ARTIST’S ORIGINAL INTENT.
Glenn Wharton, Conservator and Professor at UCLA
Who We Are
Clare Brew
Clare Brew’s journey into light art began in early 90’s London, working with Sue Shepherd’s pioneering neon company Susie’s Travelling Neon Circus. A born artist, Clare created coluntless neon pieces for film and TV productions, and helped grow Neon Circus into the go-to for artists, galleries and museums’ light art needs. In 2000, she moved to New York to pursue her own artistic goals while servicing and conserving light-based works for galleries and museums around the globe. After 35 years behind the artworks, Clare is uniqulely positioned to offer insights into art practices and technology trends which she looks forward to sharing with the conservation world. Today Clare shares a Brooklyn workshop and Art Studio with an experienced neon maker.
Sue Shepherd
Sue Shepherd is a seasoned specialist in the production and maintenance of luminous gas filled glass tubes. Having worked with visual artists in fine art, film, television and exhibition for over 40 years she has been involved in many special and iconic projects.
She studied of glass at Stourbridge College of Art during 1977-80 and became interested in the very niche material of ‘neon’. In 1981, after assisting Liliane Lijn in London for a few months, she landed with a like-minded couple who had started a small artisan business named Argon, also in London. It was here the real adventure in neon started being involved in creating street scenes for feature films and TV commercials along with complex signs and effects for television shows and theatre. With ten years of experience, in 1991, Sue started ‘Neon Circus’ and continued to work with film and TV projects as well as with Galleries and fine artists wanting to have ‘neon’ work created.
Sue left Neon Circus in 2007 and continued to work as a consultant and conservator of neon works in fine art while creating her own work in neon. The realisation of the decline in the neon industry became very evident with the gradual encroachment of LED and changing attitudes. It was obvious that neon was now an artisanal craft not an industry. In 2023 Sue was asked to create a ‘workshop’ for the Fine Art Conservation students at the UCL. This has now become an annual occurrence and in 2024 joined forces with Clare Brew, one of the original team to work at Neon Circus to dedicate knowledge and experience to keep existing neon works of art alive and maintained whilst teaching others to understand and preserve this electric craft of the 20thcentury.
