Texas Wildflowers Go Technicolor at City Place — These Flower Clouds Bring Nothing But Sunshine and a London Pedigree

Spring has sprung at City Place, and it’s not just the hot Texas weather. “Flower Clouds,” the latest pop-up art installation from London-based Catherine Borowski and Lee Baker of Graphic Rewilding, is now on display at the mixed-use land in The Woodlands region. The seven art benches feature larger-than-life images of more than 25 species of vegetation, birds and insects native to the Texas Gulf Coast.

“Flower Clouds” is the fourth temporary public art installation put on by City Place as part of a series curated by Houston’s Weingarten Art Group.

Before creating their stunning installations, the duo diligently studied the area’s native species.

“We came over in October last year,” Borowski says. “We spent time immersing ourselves in City Place. Then we went home and did a deep dive into the flowers from the region.”

Baker found the Texas project unique. “It took a long time because there’s loads to choose from, and the climate here is completely different,” Baker says. “It’s a lot wetter and cooler, so the type of plants and insects are completely different from anything we’ve encountered before.”

The seven benches — nearly six feet tall and 10 feet wide — serve as canvases for the hand-drawn designs created in Graphic Rewilding’s signature bold, pop-impressionism style. The imagery aims to rekindle a human connection with nature while also celebrating the joys of local flora and fauna. Visitors relaxing on the oversized benches are enveloped by lush meadowscapes, as if floating on a floral cloud.

Surprising Artistic Choices At City Place

Some of the floral choices may surprise visitors. “We bring flower imagery into urban environments — it’s our raison d’etre,” Baker says. “We’re inspired by flowers that grow in cracks of pavements, like dandelions, daisies and poppies. They’re beautiful, too.”

Along with the beloved Texas bluebonnets, buttercups and other lesser-known flowers adorn the installation landscape.

“I love the unsung heroes, the flowers that only kids notice,” Borowski says. “We blow them up and give adults a glimpse into the joy kids find in them.”

Graphic Rewilding has been artistically planting seeds since its founding as an art collaborative in 2021. Baker and Borowski share a vision of counterbalancing the loss of green space in urban areas with colorful, floral-inspired art. Baker hand draws the art and Borowski curates and produces the projects. Their immersive experiences have taken the form of large-scale murals, sculptures, banners and pop-up installations that give meaning to the term Flower Power.

Baker gave PaperCity The Woodlands an overview of the process behind these large scale installations. “They’re sketched first, then drawn in vector graphics software,” he says. “With this kind of software, you scale the images to any size. We could blow a flower up to the size of the moon, and it would still look the same.”

Baker creates a computer file for each flower species, each with the same characteristics. He then pulls elements from separate files to combine images into a single file. 

“Basically, I digitally arrange flowers,” Baker notes.

The Power of Public Art

Art in urban spaces is a passion for the pair.

“We both believe in the power of public art,” Baker says. “We bring nature and its emotional connections to unexpected urban spaces. Even a depiction of flowers can emotionally reconnect viewers with the sensory powers of the natural world.”

Borowski particularly loves the visitor feedback about their projects. “One of the most gratifying things is that people often tell us they’re seeing nature through new eyes,” she says. “This is art that is rooted in a place, but for some, it can be an entirely new way of looking at the world around them.”

The City Place installation is Graphic Rewilding’s second iteration of “Flower Clouds,” with it first presented as bench sculptures at Kensington and Chelsea Art Week in London in 2023. 

“Flower Clouds” is open daily from 7 am to 10 pm at 1250 Lake Plaza Drive in Spring through April 30, then again June 1 through July 27. For more information, go here.