Visit to Kew Gardens’ Exhibitions in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery

Wednesday 18th March 2026, at 11am

Please join us to view the exhibitions at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew Gardens, consisting of The Singh Twins, Flora Indica and The Shirley Sherwood Collection.

These are complementary exhibitions which explore ‘the complex colonial history of botanical art’ in South Asia.

The Singh Twins: Botanical Tales and Seeds of Empire

The Singh Twins, Amrit Singh OBE and Rabindra Kaur Singh OBE, are internationally famous British artists born in London in 1966 of Sikh parentage. Their father, a doctor, came from India to the U.K in 1947 post partition. The family moved to the Wirral where the twins now live and work. Following their first visit to India in 1980 they were inspired by Indian miniature painting which, amongst many other influences, inform their style. They produce their paintings together and identify collectively including in the way they dress, partly as a resistance to their western teachers who tried to influence them away from their developing style and for each to become more individual and work separately. Their work is widely collected.

The present work at Kew consists of large fabric light boxes meticulously detailed. This new work is ‘inspired by Kew’s botanical archives’ which explores ‘the deep connections between botany, empire and trade’. Click here for more details.

Flora Indica: Recovering the lost histories of Indian botanical art

In a completely different style but equally beautifully detailed, these are botanical paintings by Indian artists from between 1790 and 1850. They were commissioned by British botanists and have been recently rediscovered after being ‘hidden for over a century’.

The Shirley Sherwood Collection

Dr Sherwood OBE has a degree in Botany from Oxford and since 1990 has amassed a huge collection of botanical art by contemporary artists from many countries. The Sherwood family enabled the building of the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew, the only purpose-built gallery dedicated to botanical art ‘in the world’ which opened in 2008. This exhibition from her collection ‘explores India’s rich biodiversity’ and showcases beautifully detailed artworks.

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Lunch: There are various venues available for lunch within the botanical gardens after visiting the exhibitions. We propose to book a number of tables at the Pavilion Bar and Grill for those who would like to lunch with the party. Simply order and pay yourself.

Arrival: We will meet just inside the Victoria Gate (the nearest to Kew tube station, District Line Richmond branch) between 11.00 and 11.15am.

For those who are interested there is a free guided tour that morning of the flora of the Indian sub-continent designed to complement the exhibitions in the Sherwood Gallery. It assembles at 11.15 to 11.30am. at the Victoria Gate and the walk finishes at the gallery to view the exhibition. Numbers are limited to 15 people.

Admission: It is cheaper to buy tickets online in advance, rather than at the gate. Click here to check the concessionary ticket prices available on the Kew Gardens’ website.

Choose the date and ‘Select your ticket’. For concessionary prices scroll down to ‘All other tickets’ and click on the +. The available concessionary rates will appear.

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Please advise if you are joining us by registering via the Events tab on the BACSA website, or sending an email to events@bacsa.org.uk

Tina Macfarlane, Chair of the Events Sub-Committee