Louise Bourgeois and Cassi Namoda in Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today
25 April—6 September 2026
Group exhibition at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, UK
Inspired by the presence of freshly cut flower displays and paintings such as Cyclamen and Primula (c. 1923) by Winifred Nicholson in the Kettle’s Yard house, Handpicked: Painting Flowers will present works featuring flowers by artists spanning across the 20th and 21st centuries.
When Jim and Helen Ede opened Kettle’s Yard in 1957, one of the key elements of their interior displays was fresh cut flowers. Their flower arrangements created visual correspondences with the forms and colours of artworks in the Edes’ remarkable collection. Handpicked: Painting Flowers will feature artists for whom painting flowers was a lifelong preoccupation, as well as those for whom it represented a brief but intense period of making.
Alongside works by significant figures of the 20th century, including Vanessa Bell, Henri Rousseau, Winifred Nicholson and Christopher Wood, contemporary artists such as Lubaina Himid, Jennifer Packer, Chris Ofili, Caroline Walker and Alison Watt, will breathe new life into a much-loved subject. There will be one artwork from each artist on display.
Artists Hurvin Anderson, Vanessa Bell, David Bomberg, Louise Bourgeois, Jai Chuhan, Andrew Cranston, Kaye Donachie, Gigi Ettedgui, Anna Freeman Bentley, Marjory Garnett, Tirzah Garwood, Gluck, Lubaina Himid, Howard Hodgkin, Isak of Igdlorpait, Nerys Johnson, David Jones, Poppy Jones, Joy Labinjo, Doron Langberg, Aubrey Levinthal, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Rory McEwen, Cedric Morris, Cassi Namoda, Mary Newcomb, William Nicholson, Winifred Nicholson, Chris Ofili, Jennifer Packer, Celia Paul, Bryan Pearce, Emma Prempeh, Bianca Raffaella, Eric Ravilious, Anne Redpath, Henri Rousseau, William Scott, Judith Tucker, Euan Uglow, Charlotte Verity, Édouard Vuillard, Caroline Walker, Alison Watt, Christopher Wood, and Clare Woods.