A new exhibition at Kew Gardens’ Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art showcases the spectacle of trees and celebrates their resonance as a source of artistic inspiration across cultures and generations. Opening in April 2025, The Power of Trees will feature a variety of works, from painstakingly painted botanical artworks to an innovative video installation which transports visitors to a mystical boreal forest. The exhibition will also illuminate the personal connections between artists and trees and will showcase how depicting nature through different artforms can help us to connect more deeply with the world around us.

In parallel to the botanical artworks, The Power of Trees will showcase a spectacular cinematic installation from Eija-Liisa Ahtila. Spanning six vertical screens, Horizontal – Vaakasuora is a critically-acclaimed cinematic portrait of a 30-meter spruce in the boreal forest of Finland; a tree which Ahtila has known all her life. This high-definition depiction explores how to show the scale, history and complexity of a towering tree in its entirety, whilst simultaneously containing and presenting it through perhaps the most ubiquitous mechanism of modern human existence—the screen. The photographic portrait of Horizontal will also be on display. Alongside the video installation, visitors will also be able to see a selection of Ahtila’s preparatory and parallel board drawings, titled Anthropomorphic Exercises in Film, in which she applies cinematic grammar to a non-human subject, receiving their UK premiere as part of this new exhibition at Kew Gardens.