LONDON, UK (10 December 2024) – Spring comes early to London’s world-renowned Saatchi Gallery when the exhibition FLOWERS – FLORA IN CONTEMPORARY ART & CULTURE opens on 12 February 2025, supported by Cazenove Capital and Buccellati. Occupying two floors and over nine major gallery spaces, the exhibition will feature large-scale installations, original art, photography, fashion, archival objects and graphic design exploring the ongoing influence of flowers on creativity and human expression.
Flowers have, throughout history, inspired artists, writers and creatives. This exhibition seeks to reveal the myriad ways that flowers continue to be depicted by artists, and their omnipresence within our contemporary culture. Aside from studies of their inherent beauty and drama, flowers are also utilised as symbols, signifiers or metaphors for human emotions and impulses. Flora lies at the heart of myths and stories that inform our cultural outlook and language. Recognised as unparalleled objects of beauty in nature, artists continue to evoke the power and beauty of flora to convey a multitude of messages and meanings.
The exhibition is divided into nine sections, each exploring different creative themes and media. The first section, Roots, establishes the rich history of artists depicting flowers and harnessing their symbolic power from the Renaissance through Dutch flower painting to the blossoming of the Arts & Crafts Movement in the 19th century and onto modernist explorations of flowers in the 20th century. The second room, In Bloom, focuses on works by established contemporary artists created over the past 30 years revealing how flowers have continued to fascinate and provide inspirational material in our contemporary age.
A third room explores the relationship between Flowers and Fashion. People have adorned themselves with flora throughout our history. From the high street to high couture, flowers are a source of infinite inspiration, aspirational allure and perpetual appeal. It includes the jewellery and silverware of Buccellati – known for its distinctive style and hand-engraving techniques. The fourth room in the exhibition includes works by contemporary photographers and sculptors. Here, moments of beauty and life are captured in two and three dimensions.
The fifth room is a 2,000 sq ft gallery space entirely devoted to a bespoke installation piece created by internationally renowned artist Rebecca Louise Law. Entitled La Fleur Morte, a double-height gallery space will feature over 100,000 dried flowers for visitors to explore and contemplate.
The exhibition continues with a room reflecting on the prevalence of flowers as emblems and content in music, film and literature. A wall of vinyl will reveal the recurrent themes that feature on vinyl record covers over the past 50 years. Separate sections on film and literature will also demonstrate how flowers have proved fruitful sources of meaning and metaphor for poets, writers and directors.
A seventh room will be completely transformed into a digital projection space featuring the work of the pioneering French artist Miguel Chevalier. This animated work features virtual flowers and plants projected over 70 square metres and which interact with the movement of visitors within the space.
The penultimate gallery space is entitled Science: Life & Death. In collaboration with the Chelsea Physic Garden there will be sections of botanical art reflecting on the properties of flowers as medicinal plants and another looking at flowers as poisonous plants. The mathematical principles behind some natural floral phenomena will be explored as will the influence of the annual RHS Chelsea Flower Show. A section featuring superb botanical illustrations, kindly loaned by the Schroder Collection from the Schroder family, reveals how orchids were bred and developed over decades in the 20th century.
The final room of the exhibition will feature artworks by emerging or early-stage artists entitled New Shoots. The gallery space will be a rich garden of blooms competing for the attention of the viewer and revealing a diverse range of styles, approaches and media being used by contemporary artists right now.
Over 500 unique artworks and objects will be on display throughout the exhibition. The project partner for a presentation of photographic works from Flora Imaginaria, curated by Danaé Panchaud and William Ewing, is the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography (FEP).
Paul Foster, Saatchi Gallery Director comments: “The Gallery is delighted to pay homage to nature and celebrate the manifold ways that artists have been inspired by nature. We invite everyone to step into Spring and aim to put a spring in everyone’s step.”
Cazenove Capital CEO Mary-Anne Daly, part of the Schroder group comments: “We are delighted to support the invaluable work of Saatchi Gallery. Like Cazenove Capital, the Gallery has always focused on protecting an incredible legacy for future generations. Its history of identifying world class talent early on, and its mission to ‘make contemporary art accessible for everyone,’ also both resonate with Cazenove Capital and the Schroder family. We are delighted that Saatchi Gallery has chosen to display the Schroder family’s botanical art collection within the exhibition, which is such wonderful way to celebrate art, history and culture. We very much hope that all visitors to this wonderful exhibition will enjoy it as much as we have.”
Saatchi Gallery Lates will take place on 14 February, 28 February, 14 March and further dates to be announced and will feature drawing classes, workshops and creative activations.
Featured artists include:
Cristina Alcantara, Pedro Almodóvar, Nobuyoshi Araki, Nick Archer, Gillian Ayres, Jessica Backhaus, Mandy Barker, Brendan Barry, Susan Beech, Valérie Belin, Andy Bettles, Elizabeth Blackadder, John Blakemore, Jean Baptiste Bosschaert, Faye Bridgewater, Orlanda Broom, Andrea Buccellati, Gianmaria Buccellati, Mario Buccellati, Olga Cafiero, Ann Carrington, Rob & Nick Carter, Miguel Chevalier, Christo, Philip Colbert, Lottie Cole, Stephanie Comilang, Sharon Core, Michael Craig-Martin, Reuben Dangoor, Lia Darjes, William Darrell, Tom de Houwer, Richard de Tscharner, Elspeth Diederix, Jim Dine, Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg, Ron van Dongen, Xuebing Du, Elaine Duigenan, Pamela Ellis Hawkes, Ruud van Empel, Joanna Epstein, Mary Fedden, Robert Frank, Anne von Freyburg, Erwan Frotin, Adam Fuss, Matthieu Gafsou, Grace Gillespie, Sky Glabush, Daniel Gordon, Maro Gorky, Roberto Greco, Jo Grogan, Anna Halm Schudel, Joanna Ham, Rose Electra Harris, Dan Hays, George Henry, Realf Heygate, Damien Hirst, Aimée Hoving, Gary Hume, Florence Hutchings, Mila Ilingina, Yinka Ilori, Michelle Jung, Nadav Kander, Heath Kane, Sandra Kantanen, Alex Katz, Rob Kesseler, Kior Ko, Jan Sebastian Koch, Irene Küng, Wole Lagunju, Caroline Larsen, Rebecca Louise Law, David Lebe, Laura Letinsky, Kathrin Linkersdorff, Brigitte Lustenberger, Mari Mahr, Martin Maloney, Ann Mandelbaum, Tony Matelli, Margaret Mellis, Anastasija Michailova, Andrew Millar, Banita Mistry, Carmen Mitrotta, Abelardo Morell, William Morris, Alphonse Mucha, Vik Muniz, Galina Munroe, Takashi Murakami, Winifred Nicholson, Jesse Pollock, Janet Pulcho, Stormy Pyeatte, Marc Quinn, Dan Rawlings, Marcel Rickli, Almudena Romero, Paul Rousteau, Andrew Salgado, Frederick Sander, Viviane Sassen, Thirza Schaap, Schiaprelli, Helene Schmitz, Martin Schoeller, Megan Seiter, Amy Shelton, Ann Shelton, David Shrigley, Niki Simpson, Paul Anthony Smith, Soldier, Rudolf Steiner, Holly Stevenson, Florent Stosskopf, Daniel The Gardener, Rebecca Thomas, Mimei Thompson, Miriam Tölke, VOYDER, Robert Walker, Tim Walker, Tom Wesselmann, Jo Whaley, Jess Wilson, Emma Witter, Kasia Wozniak, Nadirah Zakariya, Christina Zimpel, Victoria Zschommler, Andrew Zuckerman
Curatorial project partners include:
Chelsea Physic Garden, Cinema Poster Gallery, The Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography (FEP), Marimekko, Mary Quant Limited, Sanderson Design Group including Morris & Co., William Morris Gallery