Brighton’s Barry Surtees describes his art as “anything three-dimensional that will make a shadow”. Not the most poetic soliloquy to describe one’s creative outpourings, but fitting for a man who spent 40 years working as a property developer while a hidden passion for constructivist Op art stirred beneath the surface.

You might not recognise the name, but you’ll probably have seen his work. The modernist, Bauhaus-inspired mansion in Withdean Road, which he designed and built for his family from scratch, provided Grand Designs with one of its most eventful episodes this year and is perhaps his grandest project; the Ducatti motorbike hanging on his living room wall, a reminder of a near-death accident, is his strangest.

Sadly the Ducatti will not be on display in Barry’s new show at Brighton Museum, Another Life, which opens today, yet it does go some way to explaining his approach.

“I went to an exhibition of Op art in London in the early 1980s but instead of people painting pictures they were assembling things out of scrap materials,” says Barry. “You could look at the piece from one direction and see one thing, but move a few feet and there would be something entirely different depending on the light. I just loved it.”

Op art uses three-dimensional techniques to provide optical illusions, whereas constructivism rejects art for art’s sake in favour of a more social practice based on experience.

“After that show I started integrating scrap building material I would find in skips and on-site – weather-worn wood, old signs – into my work. I love rust so I’m always picking up rusty bits of metal to work into plaster to make the rust bleed.”

Barry caught the art bug in the late 1970s. Living on his own after a divorce and with more free time, he was soon creating one-off pieces for friends. His work passed into the right hands and following a successful exhibition at Arundel Festival he ended up at Portslade’s Unit 03 gallery, where he was spotted by Brighton Museum.

“I hate depressing colours or subjects. Everything is either an up-subject or primary colour. That’s the essence – big and bold, architectural, light then shadow. I do a lot of monochromatic work and have been using Klein Blue [after designer Yves Klein] to make vivid blue paintings. One of them will be in this exhibition.”

Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed? is Barry’s response to the West Pier. Look closely and you will see a collage of Argus photographs surrounded by a large compass – a wheel hub Barry found on the beach to represent the part of the pier still visible.

“I adored the West Pier and the piece is about its demise. I think it was murdered. It was arson. There were a number of people who had vested interests in it not going ahead. It was a Grade I-listed building, the local authority couldn’t save it and people’s apathy just let it rot. What weather and nature didn’t do, people did. I watched it burn on the beach and choked.”

It’s obvious Another Life has been a cathartic experience for Barry.

“I nearly died last year and in the past 18 months I’ve had two heart attacks, five bypasses, serious surgery on my back and both hips replaced. It seemed an appropriate title given I’m taking pieces of material that would have been thrown away and giving them another, indefinite life.”

  • Free, 01273 292882. Proceeds from the sale of Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed? will be split between the Martlet’s Hospice and the Heart Unit at Royal Sussex County Hospital.