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The Saatchi Gallery’s new exhibition is a love letter to flowers

A multi-sensory celebration of flowers in art, fashion, music, and culture—featuring over 500 dazzling artworks and breathtaking immersive installations

5 February 2025

Highlights of the Flowers – Flora In Contemporary Art & Culture at the Saatchi Gallery

Opening on 12 February 2025, the Saatchi Gallery’s major spring exhibition promises to be as lush, decadent, and unapologetically floral as a midsummer English garden in full, riotous bloom.

Flowers – Flora In Contemporary Art & Culture will take over two floors of the Gallery, and bloom across nine distinct rooms, each one dedicated to the profound and varied ways flowers have influenced art, design, fashion, and pop culture.

More than 500 artworks and objects tell the story of humanity’s ongoing love affair with flowers, from their symbolic power in Renaissance paintings to their presence in contemporary fashion campaigns. It’s ambitious, visually decadent, and completely immersive, with large-scale installations designed to transport visitors into fantastical floral dreamscapes.

Miriam Tolke, Flowers of Yesterday. Courtesy the artist

Nine Rooms of Floral Fantasy

The journey begins with ‘Roots’, an exploration of flowers in classical and modern art, spanning Renaissance still lifes to the vivid. Next, ‘In Bloom’ showcases how flowers continue to inspire contemporary artists, with bold, emotive pieces by artists including by Alex Katz, Gary Hume, and Marc Quinn.

‘Flowers & Fashion’ sees fashion take centre stage, as haute couture’s ongoing obsession with botanical motifs is highlighted alongside exquisite jewellery and silverware from Buccellati.

Marc Quinn, The Sunny Side of the Moon (In The Night Garden), 2010. Image courtesy Marc Quinn Studio
Buccellati, Vintage Flower Brooch. © Buccellati

The fourth room brings together photography and sculpture, where striking floral-themed works sit alongside three-dimensional interpretations of botanical beauty. Here is where you’ll find Martin Schoeller’s unforgettable portrait of Jeff Koons, showing the artist painted white and crowned with a headdress of lusciously coloured blooms, and Viviane Sassen’s striking photo for Dazed & Confused magazine that shows a model standing in a field of pink tulips, enveloped in bold yellow and blue ruffles.

Martin Schoeller, Jeff Koons with Floral Headpiece, New York, NY, 2013. © Martin Schoeller. Courtesy Camera Work
Viviane Sassen, In Bloom (shot for Dazed & Confused magazine), 2011. © Viviane Sassen. Courtesy Stevenson Gallery, SA

A huge double-height gallery space is devoted to the awe-inspiring centrepiece of the exhibition, La Fleur Morte, an immersive installation created by internationally renowned artist Rebecca Louise Law, who suspended 100,000 dried flowers to create an ephemeral, otherworldly experience that blurs the line between decay and preservation.

Rebecca Louise Law, The Womb, 2019-20. Courtesy the artist

From there, a room dedicated to flowers in music, film, and literature, features an entire wall of vinyl record covers that tracks the prevalence of floral iconography over the last 50 years.

Miguel Chevalier’s digital installation takes over the seventh room, transforming 70 square metres of gallery space into a reactive digital floral world, where virtual plants will grow, creep and bloom in response to your movements. Kids are going to love this room.

In a collaboration with Chelsea Physic Garden, the show’s penultimate space delves into the medicinal and poisonous properties of flowers, including botanical illustrations from the Schroder Collection that trace the evolution of orchid cultivation.

‘New Shoots’, the last room of the exhibition, will showcase how the next generation of emerging artists is continuing to reinterpret floral motifs in bold and unexpected ways.

Miguel Chevalier, Extra-Natural (1), 2024. Software by Cyrille Henry/ Antoine Villeret. Courtesy The Mayor Gallery, London
Kasia Wozniak, Anemoia #8. Courtesy the artist
Brendan Barry, Common Poppy 2. Courtesy the artist
Ruud van Empel, Floresta Negra. Courtesy the artist

A Must-See Moment for Spring

With its blend of historical depth, contemporary edge, and immersive spectacle, Flowers – Flora In Contemporary Art & Culture is ushering in a landmark year for Chelsea, opening just as Sloane Street unveils its stunning £46 million transformation, setting the tone for an unforgettable season.

The show also leads into two of the neighbourhood’s most anticipated events: the once-in-a-lifetime Chelsea Garden Party and Chelsea in Bloom, this year celebrating the theme Flowers in Fashion. Expect a spectacle of floral creativity, from breathtaking street displays to exclusive in-store events, all anchored by Saatchi Gallery’s immersive deep dive into the enduring influence of flowers on art, design, and culture.

Supported by Cazenove Capital and Buccellati, there will also be a series of Saatchi Lates: workshops and creative activations running on select Friday nights, including 14 February, 28 February, and 14 March.

Flowers – Flora In Contemporary Art & Culture
From Wednesday 12 February to May 2025
The Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York’s HQ, King’s Road, SW3 4RY
Tickets: £20 for standard entry; £12 for concession tickets
For more details and to book, visit saatchigallery.com

Janet Pulcho, The Dream of Love. Courtesy the artist
Mandy Barker, Hong Kong Soup: 1826 - Lotus Garden, 2014. © Mandy Barker. Courtesy of the artist
Emma Writter, Detail of Soft Fascination, 2024. Courtesy the artist

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