Latin American Exhibit in 'Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art' at Kew

The exhibit of contemporary botanical art from Latin America can be seen in Gallery 2 within Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery. ​ The exhibition continues until 15 March 2020.

It covers botanical art by contemporary botanical artists past and present working in Brazil and Mexico . You can read more about the artists in my earlier blog post Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #2: North and Latin American Artists. They include Margaret Mee, who was born in England but did most of her work while living in Brazil.

BELOW you can see

• photos of the paintings in the exhibition
• with names of the plants, credits for the artists
• plus explanations of and/or any stories I know about the plants and/or artists!

Three paintings using pencil and gouache by Margaret Mee occupy one wall. They demonstrate the variation in the paintings she produced.  Her work is in included in the section due her dedication to painting the plants in the Amazon rainforest basin.  Her work also stimulated the Margaret Mee Fellowship Programme at Kew.

Her paintings in the exhibition are:

• Neoglaziovia variegate 1964;
  
• Philodendron - pictured with the Amazon habitat where it was growing and
  
• Clusia grandiflora 1987 (pencil and Gouache on paper)

Paintings by Margaret Mee | Left to right: Neoglaziovia variegate 1964; Philodendron and Clusia grandiflora 1987 (pencil and Gouache on paper)

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This section features paintings by artist scholars in the Margaret Mee Fellowship Programme at Kew. 

The image below contains paintings (left to right) by Alice de Rezende (b.1961) Margaret Mee Scholar in 2004; Malena Barretto (b.1952) the first ever Maraget Mee Scholar at Kew; Alessandro Candido (b.1990) Margaret Mee Scholar in 2016; Fatima Zagonel (b.1954) Margaret Mee Scholar at Kew Gardens in 1999.

• Victoria cruziana 2004 - this plant is a giant waterlily which is native to South America and is found in slow moving waters
•  Neoregelia magdalenae 1997 - a species endemic to Brazil
• Echinopsis ancistrophora 2016 (top) - which is currently rated as vulnerable and is on the Red List. "Field observations indicate that the populations are steadily declining due to expanding agriculture, urbanization and extraction for ornamental use."
• Begonia coccinia 'Pink' 2004 (bottom) - native to the Atlantic Forest of Brazil.

The paintings below are by Gustavo Marigo b.1981 and Patricia Arroxellas Villela b.1952

• (left) Disocactus ackermannii 2015 - an epiphytic cactus which grows in tropical forests
• (right) Neoregelia cruenta 2009 ​- another neoregelia also endemic to Brazil

Paintings by Gustavo Marigo and Patricia Villela

Paintings by the Demonte family next - namely (left to right) André Demonte b.1957, Etienne Demonte (1931-2004) and Rosalia Demonte (1932-2009) who painted in the Atlantic rainforest.

​Their paintings are of:

• Costus spiralis & Black Jacobin Hummingbirds 1998 - a large perennial shrub native to Brazil
• Bilbergia sanderiana & humming birds chinned sapphire - endemic to Brazil
• Langsdorffia hypogea

Paintings by members of the Demonte family

Next paintings by Gustavo Surlo and Ekvia Esparaza of Mexico

• (Left) Nymphaea thermarum Pygmy Rwandan Waterily 2018 - Now extinct in the wild after a hot sprint dried up. It was discovered in 1985 in just one location, Mashyuza in Rwanda. Specimens were brought to Kew to try and propogate it. This proved very difficult but was achieve din 2009. In 2014, one of the plants was stolen from Kew
• (right) ​Pelecyphora aselliformis Ehrenberg 1999 - A rare and very slow growing cactus. It is a small, clustering cactus which grows in the shade to become spherical or shortly cylindrical. It's found in grit, at over 1800 meters in altitude in Mexico. This painting features on a double page spread (on pages 138-139) introducing the section of Latin American artists in the book

Paintings by Gustavo Surlo and Ekvia Esparaza

Finally Alvaro E. X. Nunes (b.1945) and Malena Burrato

• (top left) Annona crassiflora 2003 - a flowering plant in the Annonaceae family. The species is native to the Cerrado region but is also found in other regions of Brazil. Alvaro specialises in painting fruits of Brazilian plants and this one has a fruit is fairly large, with a highly aromatic pulp.
• (Bottom left) Bromelia sp. 2009 - widespread across much of Latin America and the West Indies. It is characterized by flowers with a deeply cleft calyx.
• Leaf of Gustavia Augusta - an evergreen understory tree with a small, pyramid-shaped crown. Grows in grows in Central and north-western South America.

Watercolour paintings by Alvaro E. X. Nunes (b.1945) and Malena Burrato

Read more about botanical art in South America
​

My blog has more posts about

• South American botanical artists
• reviews of exhibitions involving artists from Latin America

See:

• ​Margaret Mee 1909-1988: 30th Anniversary
• Christobel King and the Margaret Mee Artist Scholars
• Private View of "Brazil - a Powerhouse of Plants"
• List of artists exhibited in "Abundance, seed pods and autumn fruit" at Kew
• Selected artists for Brazil's Botanical Art Worldwide Exhibition (BAW#2)
• More from Brazil and New Zealand re. the Worldwide Exhibition of Botanical Art

Plus I have a page dedicated to South American Botanical Artists

Details about exhibition and book
​

​EXHIBITING ARTISTS - by country

• Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #1: British Artists​
• Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #2: North and Latin American Artists
• Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #3: European Artists
• Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #4: Artists from Asia
• Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #5: South African Artists
• Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #6: Australasian Artists

EXHIBITS - by continent/county

• Review: 'Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art' at Kew Gardens
• Australasian Exhibit in 'Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art' at Kew

You can buy or order the exhibition book from the Kew Shop - currently listed at a special price of £25. Alternatively, the book is also available from Amazon.

• ​The Shirley Sherwood Collection - from Amazon UK
• The Shirley Sherwood Collection - from Amazon.com

Exhibition Venue (and Shop): Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
Dates: 16 November 2019 – 15 March 2020
Hours: Note that the Gardens open at 10am every day. Closing times vary throughout the year - and closing times for the Gallery are typically 30 minutes before those for the garden.
Below are the closing times and last entry times for the GARDEN.

• 27 October – 19 November 2019: 3.45pm (last entry 3.15pm)
• 20 November 2019 – 23 December 2019: 3.30pm (last entry 3.00pm)
• 24 & 25 December 2019: Closed
• 26 December 2019 – 5 January 2020 3.30pm (last entry 3pm)
• 6 – 31 January 2020: 4.15pm (last entry 3.15pm)
• 1 – 29 February 2020: 5pm (last entry 4pm)
• 1 – 29 March 2020: 6pm (last entry 5pm) 

Admission: Free with entrance to Kew Gardens ​