Orlanda Broom: Ordered Chaos

We have shown Orlanda Broom's work for two decades, twenty years of watching a practice take shape, deepen, and hold. She has been a full-time artist for more than fifteen years. From the beginning, we recognised something distinct in her vision.

Two bodies of work

Orlanda paints in two distinct modes. The first: lush, reimagined landscapes dense with exotic flora, saturated colour and layered surfaces. The second: fluid abstract works in resin, made intuitively, where chance plays a direct role in forming the composition.

What connects the two is colour, organic form, and an ongoing exploration of the mediums themselves. Her landscapes are celebratory, wild, uninhabited. There is surface joyousness, but also an uneasy sense of abandonment. These are places that would ensnare as much as enchant.

Orlanda works across scales, from intimate studies on canvas board and paper to monumental commissions. The process is intuitive. Compositions are resolved on the surface. She has spoken about being brutal with early layers, blocking out and overpainting until the painting retains its energy and arrives at a state of ordered chaos.

Commissions and landmark moments

Orlanda's scale and colour have attracted commissions that place her work in some of the most closely considered interiors in the world.

Her 4 x 4 metre triptych Manna Hatta was commissioned for the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel in Downtown New York in 2016. She worked on it solidly, seven days a week, over several months.

At the Mandarin Oriental in London, her large abstract was installed in the Rosebery Lounge as part of an interior design project by GA Design International. The scheme won Best Design for Cafe Bar/All Day Dining at the European Hotel Design Awards. The judges singled out the artwork, describing it as a vivacious celebration of life.

That connection to the Mandarin Oriental led to a remarkable moment. When Sir Peter Blake was commissioned to create a large-scale collage for the hotel's hoarding during its renovation, inspired by his genre-defining Sgt. Pepper's album cover, Orlanda appeared in the work. Her paintings inside the hotel. Her face on its facade.

In 2019, Orlanda was commissioned to paint a large-scale work for the newly renovated Cadogan Hotel in London.

I have written about Orlanda more than almost any other artist in our programme, both in our newsletters and blog, and in the national press. Not because we needed to build a case, but because the case kept building itself.

Orlanda has repeatedly been selected for major exhibitions and competitions including the RA Summer Exhibition, the Threadneedle Prize, NOAC, Griffin Gallery Open and the BEEP International Painting Prize, among others. Over the past two years it feels like we are witnessing a step change.

In 2025, Orlanda's painting Passing Through was included in Flowers: Flora in Contemporary Art and Culture at Saatchi Gallery, London, a landmark exhibition occupying two floors alongside artists including Pedro Almodovar, Gillian Ayres, Christo and Rob and Nick Carter.

Orlanda undertook a printmaking residency at Lux Perpetua Art Centre and Casa Lo'ol in Merida, Mexico, where she produced her first edition in copper plate etching, a significant new direction.

In 2026, her painting Ghost (100 x 75 cm, 2025) has been selected for The Open: Odyssey at Hastings Contemporary, a major biennial open exhibition.

Available works

We currently hold a selection of original paintings and are proud to offer 10 buyers a new copper plate etching edition entitled Chamoy Chamoy.

Made during Orlanda's printmaking residency in Merida, Mexico, in 2025, this is her first edition and marks her move into printmaking through copper plate etching, a medium that demands precision and a different kind of surrender.