We paid a visit to Saatchi Gallery's sensational exhibition: FLOWERS - Flora in Contemporary Art & Culture
Spanning two floors and nine major gallery spaces, the show is a vivid celebration of how flowers continue to bloom across the worlds of art, design, fashion and photography. From symbolism and storytelling to science, fashion and form, this landmark exhibition shows just how deeply rooted flora is in human creativity.
Image credit: Saatchi Gallery
Initially scheduled to run to 5th May 2025, the exhibition will now reopen for the summer from 30th May 30 until 31st August 2025 due to popular demand. If you missed it the first time, this is the perfect opportunity to experience this vibrant celebration of flowers in contemporary creativity.
We were especially excited to spot a few familiar names among the artists on display. Enter Gallery artists, Marc Quinn, Gary Hume, and Michael Craig-Martin all feature in this impressive exploration of contemporary botanical art.
Highlights from the Exhibition
One of the most talked-about pieces was by artists Rob and Nick Carter, who transformed Van Gogh’s iconic Sunflowers into a three-dimensional bronze sculpture using the lost wax method. Set against a digital backdrop of Irises, the piece reimagines what the original still life may have looked like from Van Gogh's own perspective – a mesmerising blend of digital and traditional craft.
La Fleur Morte by Rebecca Louise Law is a breathtaking installation of suspended dried flowers which transforms the gallery space into an immersive, dreamlike environment where time feels suspended. Law’s work invites viewers to reflect on the lifecycle of nature, beauty in decay, and the preservation of memory.
Image credit: Saatchi Gallery
Ann Carrington’s sculptural bouquets crafted from vintage cutlery were another standout moment. Inspired by Dutch vanitas still life paintings, Carrington explores the impermanence of material wealth. As she explains, “It occurred to me that the only items that might survive in the world today would be the silverware,” leading her to create delicate floral forms out of spoons and salvaged metal objects. The result is a gleaming, ghostly still life, caught between decay and celebration.
Marc Quinn’s The Sunny Side of the Moon (In the Night Garden) takes a more surrealist route, subverting traditional still life forms into a vivid dreamscape. These large-scale floral compositions, while beautiful on the surface, carry a deeper message: Marc Quinn explores our human desire to control nature, often revealing the tension between beauty and power. His Iris series available at Enter Gallery continues his exploration of nature, perception and the sublime.
The influence of flora on fashion also takes centre stage in this show, with designers such as Vivienne Westwood celebrated for their use of botanical motifs. Westwood’s Gold Label Spring/Summer 2014 collection incorporated floral prints as bold expressions of identity, nature and rebellion.
As the exhibition highlights, flowers have always adorned the human body – from ancient garlands to tattoo art and contemporary couture.
Gary Hume’s contribution to the show, Two Blooms, Grey Fields (2020), captures a tender moment between two towering flowers. With painterly energy and emotional nuance, the piece evokes the intimacy of a couple in conversation.
At Enter Gallery, you can explore Hume’s Flowers of Dover series – radiant silkscreens that turn everyday blooms into abstract meditations on presence and emotion.
And then there is Andy Warhol – the original master of Pop – whose iconic Flowers prints are also on display. What started as a floral photograph became a silkscreened sensation: vivid, flat, colourful, and unflinchingly modern. Warhol’s flowers continue to captivate not just for their visual impact but for the darker undercurrents they suggest – themes of ephemerality, beauty and loss.
This juxtaposition inspired Enter Gallery artist Dan Baldwin to create his own homage. His prints Utopia, Infatuation, and Delirium channel Warhol’s visual language while weaving in Baldwin’s signature contrasts: hope and entrapment, innocence and conflict.
Floral Motifs, Endlessly Reimagined
From cutlery sculptures and Pop Art classics to conceptual still lifes and emotionally-charged abstracts, FLOWERS at Saatchi Gallery proves that the humble bloom still has plenty to say. Through symbolism, colour, form, and personal memory, flora remains a powerful tool for self-expression.
Whether you’re a plant lover, a design enthusiast or simply drawn to the beauty of botanicals, this exhibition is a must-see.
Bring the Bloom Home
Freshly picked after our visit to this remarkable show, we have curated a floral-inspired collection of works from Enter Gallery artists. Whether subtle or bold, symbolic or celebratory, each artwork captures the rich legacy and contemporary power of botanicals in art.
Explore the Contemporary Botanicals Collection
