Mayfair dining destination Sketch has always found weird and wonderful ways to celebrate London’s vibrant arts scene, and the tenth edition of Sketch in Bloom is no exception. In celebration of 200 years of the National Gallery, the much-anticipated exhibition ‘National Treasures’ transforms the Grade II listed building into a blooming homage to the gallery’s master artists.
From May 1 – 27, Sketch’s visionary spaces will house a variety of large-scale centerpieces, textured hangings, and reimagined botanical beings, immersing visitors in floral interpretations of Britain’s most famed artworks.
The exhibition begins at entry, where creative florist Rebel Rebel’s installation turns Sketch’s entrance hall and reception into a botanical wonder of blooms and greenery. On the left of the hallway, three framed still-life arrangements display a colorful selection of best-in-season British flowers, each bursting out of ceramics crafted by artisans Annalea Clelia, Dimitirs Papailias, and Trisha Filor.
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Make your way down the entrance hall to find a life-size recreation of Eduard Manet’s portrait of muse and painter Eva Gonzalèz. The installation comprises a half-finished canvas and an artist’s chair, framed by an oversized gold frame. Both an interactive piece and playful photo opportunity, visitors are encouraged to playfully engage with the installation and pose at the artist’s easel.
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Heading into the Lecture Room and Library, Lucy Vail’s impressive resin centerpiece ‘Pastoral Inspiration’ makes for a wonderous tribute to Alfred Sisley’s painting The Small Meadows in Spring. Featuring pressed foliage, colorful dried flowers, and fresh plants, the installation is a nod to the artist’s influence on English heritage and love for the British landscape.
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The Glade, Sketch’s forest eatery and cocktail bar, displays JamJar Flowers’ dreamlike instillation. Inspired by the light, color, and movement in JMW Turner’s Ulysses Deriding Plyphemus, the piece decorates the ceiling with intricately knotted ropes and decadent hanging textiles, incorporating raw materials such as flax fibers, honeysuckle, bog myrtle, bear and elephant grass, reeds, willow, and grasses to create flowing, ethereal drapes. Working with fabric installation artist Mia Sylvia, the mythical fabrics are colored with food-waste-based botanical dyes.
Finally, tucked away in the East Bar and photo-famous pod toilets is artist and floral designer Yan Skates’ ‘Plant Beings’, curated by Artistic Statements. Taking inspiration from The National Gallery’s A Still Life of Flowers in a Wan-Li Vase by Dutch Master Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, the piece is a fantastical imagination of the famous painting in human form. Throughout the otherworldly space, floral beings pose in and around the egg-shaped cubicles, bringing humor, joy, and an element of surprise to the world-famous restrooms.
To further celebrate the gallery’s bicentenary, Sketch is holding a floral tote bag workshop led by artist Tony Green and floral arrangement workshops with featured artist Yan Skates.
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