Sophie Mess’s new mural ‘Journey of Progress” spreads over 2 floors in this vast group exhibition dedicated to exploring the influence of flowers on creativity and human expression
Flowers – Flora in Contemporary Art and Culture opens at Saatchi Gallery in London on 12th February – 5th May 2025.
Sophie Mess is a British artist known for transforming urban landscapes with her largescale- floral murals. Her latest botanical beauty is a colossal 8m high colourful bloom that will welcome the public at Saatchi Gallery’s latest Exhibition – Flowers – Flora in Contemporary Art and Culture. Delicate and vibrant, her floral design will boldly lead the visitor up a spiral staircase into a botanical world of beauty and drama.
Thrilled to be part of an exhibition celebrating a passion so close to her heart, Mess is delighted that her latest work, entitled Journey of Progress will greet visitors at the iconic Gallery, alongside established artists and exciting talent alike.
“The mural is a personal reflection on my journey as an artist. So, the piece is all about progress, suggesting that growth is built over time, piece by piece, and that every experience is part of a larger journey of development” Sophie Mess.
The enormous spray-painted floral mural builds slowly and resiliently along the height of the stairwell – gaining energy and momentum through execution and colour. Taking 9 days to complete, the mural starts with “soft blue flowers, lower in vibrancy to represent the early quiet stages of growth”, and gradually grows, escalating in colour height and intensity, along the architecture of the stairwell to become bold fiery oranges and yellows of trumpeting tulips – “symbolising breakthroughs and powerful moments of progress”.
Always inspired by nature, Sophie Mess started painting flowers in the street whilst living in London because “subconsciously I was missing that connection to nature”. Her work has evolved from street art murals, where she designs digitally using photographs she has taken. She then scales these images up onto ‘urban canvases’ bringing nature and its positively transformative essence to the urban environment.
Describing herself as a “colour fiend – bright colours energise me, and I love discovering colour combinations everywhere, in nature or on my travels through various cultures especially where bold colours are plentiful”. Her process has also inspired her to recently start growing plants as reference, adding another ‘new shoot’ to her work and the exploration of the natural world.
About Sophie Mess
Living and working in Devon, Sophie has been painting full time professionally for 10 years. She started out painting for a small artists-collective in London painting commercial murals, describing it as an invaluable education. Since then, her portfolio has grown significantly “piece by piece”. Her work can now be found across Europe, from towering five-story buildings in France, Hotel rooftops in the heart of Rome, bustling city centre squares in Sweden, Wynwood walls in Miami, as well as Brazil and throughout the UK. She also has works in Galleries across London, and had her first wearable art project make a debut at London Fashion Week 2023. www.sophiemess.com @sophiemess_
FLOWERS – FLORA IN CONTEMPORARY ART & CULTURE presents over 500 unique artworks and objects across two floors and nine major gallery spaces to showcase the ongoing influence of flowers on creativity and human expression. The project partner for a presentation of photographic works from Flora Imaginaria, curated by Danaé Panchaud and William Ewing, is the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography (FEP). The exhibition is supported by Cazenove Capital and Buccellati.
About Saatchi Gallery
Since 1985, Saatchi Gallery has provided an innovative platform for contemporary art. Exhibitions have presented works by largely unseen young artists, or by international artists whose work has been rarely or never exhibited in the UK. This approach has made the Gallery one of the most recognised names in contemporary art. Since moving to its current 70,000 square feet space in the Duke of York’s Headquarters in Chelsea, London, the Gallery has welcomed over 10 million visitors. The Gallery hosts thousands of school visits annually and has over 6 million followers on social media. In 2019 Saatchi Gallery became a registered charity, beginning a new chapter in its history.
About Cazenove Capital
Cazenove Capital is a leading provider of personalised wealth management services to ultra- high-net-worth and high-net-worth clients, family offices and trusts. As well as discretionary and advisory investment services, we offer wider wealth management services such as advice on philanthropy and impact investment, wealth planning, cash management, deposit-taking and lending.
As the UK’s largest manager of charitable assets, our charity team provides a range of specialised services to a wide range of endowments, foundations and other charity clients. We also work in partnership with financial advisers to provide discretionary fund management to their clients.
Cazenove Capital is a subsidiary of Schroders plc, a major FTSE 100 company. The Schroder family still own a significant percentage of the company, having founded it over 200 years ago. This enables us to take a long-term view and to continue investing in our people, systems and services to deliver the high standards that we set of ourselves and that our clients expect of us.
For more information on our ultra-high and high-net-worth business in the UK, please visit cazenovecapital.com.
About Buccellati
Buccellati is a renowned high-jewelry and silverware Maison, admired for its craftmanship and the uniqueness of its creations. Distinctive is the use of rare stones with extraordinary colors, mixed with white and yellow gold, all nicely carved like laces. Today, the Buccellati jewels stand out for their design and for the techniques used to create them, such as the hand-engraving technique, dating back to the ancient goldsmithing traditions of the Italian “bottega” during the Renaissance times. The shapes of the collections are all inspired the historical archive drawings and by the very first creations of the founder, Mario Buccellati. Today, the Maison is 100% owned by Richemont, but the Buccellati family is still present in the company with top level managerial functions. Buccellati boutiques are present in the most important cities and in the most prestigious Malls of the world.
About The Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography
An independent non-profit organization, The Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography (FEP) produces unique and influential museum-quality photography exhibitions and circulates them around the world. The Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography (Minneapolis/Paris/Lausanne) aims to enlighten, delight, and inspire people around the world through the presentation of photography exhibitions, publications, related online content, symposia, lectures, and other forms of educational events and materials. Founded in 2003, FEP is based in Minneapolis, a city with a vibrant tradition of support for the arts. The organization has
achieved substantial results in its first two decades, with shows travelling to 35 countries on 4 continents, and with catalogues produced in many different languages.
