Landscape
and
Imagination

About the
Exhibition

You could explore how artists and designers reimagined nature in this delightful exhibition.

Guest-curated by Professor Christiana Payne, it showcased how artists like JMW Turner, Nicolas Poussin, Ian Hamilton Finlay and Anya Gallaccio have shaped landscapes over time. From grand 17th-century gardens to modern land art, you could discover how artists have interacted with the designed landscape.

From the formal grounds of the 17th and 18th centuries to smaller flower-filled gardens of the 19th and 20th centuries, artists and garden designers have made their mark on the landscape around them. Today, environmentally conscious land artists undertake earth moving schemes which echo the grand planting schemes of the past.

This exhibition questioned whether these artistic visions of the ideal landscape have warped our concept of what is truly natural and how art can work together with nature to reverse the decline of our green spaces.

Children and families imagined their own colourful and fantastical landscapes through playful interactive activities in the exhibition galleries.