In Conversation: Flower Painting Now
20 May, 7-8.30pm
Join us for an in-conversation with exhibition artists Jai Chuhan, Anna Freeman Bentley, Bianca Raffaella and Charlotte Verity on the theme of flower painting now, chaired by Assistant Curator Naomi Polonsky. The event accompanies our current exhibition Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today.
The exhibition will be open to view from 6.30pm.
About the Speakers
Jai Chuhan is an Indian-born British painter who studied at the Slade School of Fine Art. Her paintings depict vividly coloured abstracted interiors inhabited by female figures. In 2024, Chuhan was shortlisted for the David and Yuko Juda Art Foundation Grant, curated by Peter Doig, and her work featured in the Hayward touring exhibition Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood, curated by Hettie Judah (2024-25). Her paintings have been included in solo and group exhibitions at museums and galleries including Tate Liverpool; Barbican Art Gallery, London; Ikon, Birmingham; and art fairs including Art Basel with the Approach, London; Frieze London, Art Mumbai; and India Art Fair with Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi.
Anna Freeman Bentley received her BA from Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2004 and her MA from the Royal College of Art in 2010. Her depictions of interiors, ranging from staged domestic spaces to junk shops, restaurants and private members clubs, are influenced by the ideas and architecture of the Baroque. Selected solo exhibitions include Anat Ebgi, LA (2024), MassimodeCarlo Pièce Unique, Paris (2024) and Frestonian Gallery, London (2022).
Bianca Raffaella is a British artist and activist who creates floral and figurative works. She became the first registered blind student to graduate from Kingston University in Visual Art in 2016. As a partially-sighted artist, Raffaella relies on sensory cues and touch through impasto and hand-painting techniques. She completed the Tracey Emin Artist Residency (TEAR) in 2023-24 and was announced as the Overall Winner of the Women in Art Prize in 2025.
Charlotte Verity is a British painter and printmaker. Her garden, in southeast London and now Somerset, is the focus of her work and she often paints outside or brings elements of nature into her studio. She graduated from the Slade School of Art in 1977 and has undertaken residencies at Towner Eastbourne and the Garden Museum, London. Since 2001 she has taught at the Royal Drawing School.
About the Exhibition
Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today
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 presents works featuring flowers by artists spanning across the 20th and 21stcenturies.
Access
- Please note, for conservation and security reasons, no bags or large coats are allowed in the house. Bag storage is available at reception.
- This event will take place in the extension of the house which is accessible, with some limitations. The ground floor extension area is accessible for wheelchair users with a ramp. There is no lift to the upper floors of the house. If you call in advance or ask at the information desk we can reserve an accessible seat for you. Please get in touch on 01223 748100 or email mail@kettlesyard.cam.ac.uk.
- The galleries, where exhibitions are shown, and all areas of the Clore Learning Studio (level -1), the Research Space (level 1) and the Ede Room (level 2) are fully accessible.
- We have wheelchair accessible toilets on the lower ground (level -1), ground and first floor (level 1).
- There is a lift giving access to all floors located past the galleries, just beside the Clore Learning Studio on the ground floor.
- Kettle’s Yard welcomes assistance and service dogs in all areas.
- We have large-print versions of the wall text available.
