Spring comes early to Saatchi Gallery as FLOWERS – FLORA IN CONTEMPORARY ART & CULTURE opens to the public this Wednesday (12 February). Supported by Cazenove Capital and Buccellati, this extensive and magnificent exhibition spans two floors and over nine major gallery spaces. Featuring amazing large-scale installations, original artworks, photography, fashion, archival objects, and graphic design to explore the ongoing influence of flowers on creativity and human expression.
– La Fleur Morte, an awe-inspiring, bespoke installation by internationally renowned artist Rebecca Louise Law features over 100,000 dried flowers to create a breathtaking space for visitors to explore and contemplate.
– A colossal 50-square-metre spray-painted mural by Sophie Mess, titled Journey of Progress, symbolises breakthroughs and powerful moments of progress.
– Miguel Chevalier‘s Extra Natural invites visitors to play in a lush, virtual garden blending dream and reality, and filled with imaginary plants — luminescent, fluid, and vibrant.
– A staggering 500 artworks and objects are displayed throughout the exhibition, including pieces from established contemporary artists such as Gillian Ayres, Elizabeth Blackadder, Michael Craig-Martin, Alex Katz, Gary Hume and Marc Quinn; to exciting emerging talent.
DATES: 12 FEBRUARY – 5 MAY
TICKETS: FROM £10 at SAATCHIGALLERY.COM
Flowers have long inspired artists, writers, and creatives. This exhibition examines how flowers are depicted in art, not only for their inherent beauty but also as powerful symbols of love, birth, death, hope, and human emotion. Deeply woven into our myths and cultural language, flowers carry meanings that resonate across time — from the romance of the rose to the purity of the lily. They appear at key moments in life and evoke visions of paradise and utopia. Across nine galleries, FLOWERS pays homage to the flower’s perennial attraction and reminds us of the extraordinary endurance of flora as an inspiring subject in art.
Greeting visitors at the entrance to the exhibition is a colossal 50-metre square mural by British artist Sophie Mess. Titled Journey of Progress, the work is a personal reflection of Mess’s journey as an artist, suggesting “growth is built over time, piece by piece, and every experience is part of a larger journey of development.” — Sophie Mess
The enormous spray-painted floral mural builds slowly along the height of the stairwell, gaining energy and momentum through execution and colour. Taking nine days to complete, the mural begins with “soft blue flowers, lower in vibrancy to represent the early quiet stages of growth,” and gradually intensifies in colour, height, and depth. Along the architecture of the stairwell, it transforms into bold fiery oranges and yellows of trumpeting tulips—“symbolising breakthroughs and powerful moments of progress.”
Room 1: ROOTS explores the rich history of artists depicting flowers, from the Renaissance to the modernist works of the 20th century. Flowers have long been a significant theme in Western art, with countless examples across genres and centuries. Renaissance artists blended floral mythology with scientific curiosity to create works of symbolic depth and accuracy, while Dutch flower painting of the 17th and 18th centuries emphasised both symbolism and representational excellence. The 19th-century Arts & Crafts Movement integrated floral beauty into everyday life through various art forms, and the Impressionists, including Van Gogh, shifted the focus to light and colour. In the 20th century, modernist artists moved away from realistic depictions, emphasising instead the emotional impact of flowers. Photography and later movements, such as pop art and conceptual art, further transformed our relationship with flowers, offering new ways to appreciate their significance in both historical and contemporary art.
Room 2: IN FULL BLOOM showcases works by established contemporary artists from the past 40 years, demonstrating how flowers continue to inspire in the modern age. Over the past four decades, contemporary art has become increasingly globalised, with ideas and aesthetics flowing freely across borders. Artists worldwide have drawn inspiration from the flora around them and its symbolism. This exhibition room features internationally renowned artists, each exploring the possibilities of depicting flowers. While their techniques and messages vary, all share a deep admiration for nature and its energy. In Full Bloom highlights the ongoing significance of flowers in contemporary art, whether as an escape from the world’s challenges or as a way to understand our place within it.
Room 3: FLOWERS IN FASHION explores the enduring relationship between flowers and fashion, showcasing how flowers have inspired adornment throughout history, from ancient rituals to modern designs. Featuring jewellery and silverware by Buccellati, renowned for its distinctive style and hand-engraving techniques, the display demonstrates how flowers continue to captivate both haute couture and high-street fashion. Flowers have long been used to enhance beauty and express vitality, energy, and youth. Here, we see how floral motifs continue to inspire contemporary fashion, with designers like Vivienne Westwood and Mary Quant using the body as a canvas, while artists like Daniel The Gardener merge fashion with “living art” through tattoos. Read more about this section here.
Room 4: FLOWERS IN PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE features contemporary photographers and sculptors, capturing moments of beauty in two and three dimensions. Over 30 internationally renowned photographers, including Pedro Almodóvar, Valérie Belin, and Vik Muniz, present diverse floral imagery, from landscapes to studio settings. Their work ranges from homage to art history to bold subversion.
On the floor, sculptural representations of flora are created using techniques from traditional wood carving to modern 3D printing. This contrast between photography and sculpture invites viewers to reflect on how each medium approaches the same subject. This collection, co-organised by the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography (FEP), was originally curated as Flora Imaginaria by Danaé Panchaud and William Ewing.
Room 5 is a stunning 2,000 sq ft gallery entirely dedicated to LA FLEUR MORTE, an awe-inspiring, bespoke installation by internationally renowned artist Rebecca Louise Law. This immersive work features over 100,000 dried flowers, creating a breathtaking space for visitors to explore and contemplate.
La Fleur Morte delves into the space between life and death, memorialising nature through flowers. By using the “dead flower” as her sculptural material, Law examines our capitalist culture and our insatiable desire for more. Since 2003, she has collected flowers from the commercial flower industry, donations from gardens worldwide, and even grows her own, ensuring nothing is wasted. The installation invites reflection on our human connection to the earth, with each flower representing a deeper appreciation for nature.
Law believes in the spiritual connection that occurs within her work, which engages viewers and local community groups to foster a shared sense of belonging to something greater. Known for creating immersive, site-specific pieces, Law’s work spans Europe and the USA, using materials from her vast 20-year archive alongside locally sourced donations. Her installations encourage a profound, collective appreciation of nature and our place within it.
Room 6: FLOWERS IN MUSIC, FILM, AND LITERATURE highlights the role of flowers as symbols and motifs across these different media. A wall of vinyl records displays floral themes on album covers over the past 50 years, while separate sections explore how flowers serve as meaningful metaphors in film and literature.
Flowers often appear on book covers, conveying emotions like love or mysticism, and in children’s literature, they evoke adventure and wonder. In music, flowers on album covers enhance the emotional impact, reinforcing the artist’s message. In film, flowers create unforgettable imagery, from their dreamy presence in The Wizard of Oz to their symbolic roles in American Beauty, Midsommar, and The Wicker Man.
Room 7: MIGUEL CHEVALIER, EXTRA-NATURAL is a generative and interactive virtual reality installation, bringing virtual flowers and plants to life across 70 square metres while interacting with visitors’ movements. Extra-Natural presents a lush, virtual garden that blends dream and reality, filled with imaginary plants—luminescent, fluid, and vibrant. Using algorithms, Chevalier creates a dynamic environment where plants grow, bloom, and fade in endless cycles. The garden constantly evolves, with plants responding to movements through infrared sensors, undulating and shifting in a graceful, poetic dance. This interactive installation invites reflection on the fragility of nature and the urgent need to preserve biodiversity, creating a new symbiosis between humans and the environment.
Room 8: SCIENCE: LIFE OR DEATH. In collaboration with the Chelsea Physic Garden, this room explores the scientific aspects of flowers, highlighting their medicinal and poisonous properties, as well as the mathematical principles behind natural floral phenomena. The influence of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is also explored, along with a collection of stunning botanical illustrations from the Schroder Collection, showing the meticulous breeding and development of orchids in the 20th century. Contemporary artworks complement the display, leading to the conclusion with Worlds Within Worlds, a newly commissioned film by Floral Designer and Spatial Artist, Tom de Houwer.
Room 9: NEW SHOOTS presents vibrant artworks by emerging and early-career artists, showcasing a wide range of styles, approaches, and media. Like walking through a secret garden, the space is filled with blooming works, many created in recent months and shown for the first time. It highlights how contemporary artists continue to draw inspiration from flowers, using them to capture beauty, vitality, light, symbolism, and to explore themes of life, mortality, and human nature. Many pieces are available for sale, with details provided in the Gallery Shop. New Shoots offers a snapshot of the current artistic landscape, demonstrating that the influence of flowers remains a rich source of creativity.
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 Bridgwater, Orlanda Broom, 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, Kate Gibb, 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, Neil Kellerhouse, Rob Kesseler, Kior Ko, Jan Sebastian Koch, Irene Küng, Yayoi Kusama, 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, Sophie Mess, Ally McIntyre, 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, Schiaparelli, Helene Schmitz, Martin Schoeller, Megan Seiter, Amy Shelton, Ann Shelton, David Shrigley, Niki Simpson, Chieska Smith, Paul Anthony Smith, Leonard “Soldier” Iheagwam, Rudolf Steiner, Holly Stevenson, Florent Stosskopf, Daniel The Gardener, Rebecca Thomas, Mimei Thompson, Miriam Tölke, VOYDER, Robert Walker, Tim Walker, Tom Wesselmann, Vivienne Westwood, Jo Whaley, Jess Wilson, Emma Witter, Kasia Wozniak, Nadirah Zakariya, Christina Zimpel, Victoria Zschommler, Andrew Zuckerman
Supporters: Cazenove Capital and Buccellati
Curatorial Project Partners: 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
Saatchi Gallery is also partnering with Freddie’s Flowers to highlight the way flowers can transform any space into a haven of beauty, with a stunning free-to-enter floral installation over Mother’s Day weekend on the Gallery’s Ground Floor, a limited-edition Saatchi Gallery flower arrangement fusing Freddie’s signature style and the vibrant world of contemporary art and a series of exclusive flower arranging workshops at Saatchi Lates on 28 March.
Saatchi Gallery Lates: 14 February, 28 February, 14 March, 28 March, 11 April and 2 May, featuring drawing classes, workshops and creative activations.