Magdalene Odundo DBE is one of the greatest ceramic artists working today. Her distinctive, burnished vessels are informed by a range of art and craft traditions from around the world. The Fitzwilliam Museum’s display (on show 5 October 2021 - 24 July 2022) marks 50 years since Odundo moved from Kenya to Cambridge to take an Art Foundation Course at Cambridge School of Art, and brings together a selection of the global ceramics from Cambridge collections and examples of her own unmistakable work.

James’ practice – and his art – have been shaped by the use of pattern and colour in ancient Rome. Preserved architectural details, remnants of colour, geometric mosaics, and objects all serve as points of departure for the creation of new works, carefully sited among MOCA’s cast collection.

In this online exhibition, James talks us through not only his works but also his process.

View the online exhibition.

The Polar Museum has worked with numerous artists who specialise in the polar regions. They also happen to have some remarkable material in their collections. Now, as part of the The Big Freeze Art Festival, you can enjoy an online exhibition put together by Charlotte Connelly, Museum Curator at the Polar Museum. 

View the online exhibition.

Find out how the Sedgwick Museum rose to the challenging by recreating the Duria Antiquior painting, that hangs in the Museum and the social media champagne that produced ammonites, belemnites and ichthyosaurs made from teaspoons, vegetables, Lego and more.

Assuming the Greek gods are immortal and therefore have a continued presence, artist Marian Maguire wonders: would they do things differently? Would they stay the same and maintain the status quo or would they choose to change, if they could see us now? Would they stay, or would they walk away?

Visit the online exhibition

Botanical illustration is often admired for its beauty and accuracy, which can mask the ways in which the plant was acquired in the first place and the brutality of the war and violence which enabled the plant to be seen, studied, collected and painted.

In the collage Woven Histories, Claire O'Brien weaves together the Fitzwilliam Museum's beautiful watercolour of the plant josephinia imperatricis, named for the French Empress Joséphine, with a commanding image of Joséphine's husband Napoleon Bonaparte. It's impossible to see one without the o

What can the botany-loving Empress Joséphine, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, tell us about the relationship between science and empire? 

Helen Grundy's artwork Josephine Hybrid is inspired by a botanical watercolour in the Fitzwilliam Museum by Pierre-Joseph Redouté. The watercolour depicts the plant josephinia imperatricis, named after Empress Joséphine. In this collage, Helen splices together josephinia imperatricis with a portrait of its namesake.

Carole Bouvier's collage wraps the Fitzwilliam Museum's marble portrait of Queen Victoria in patterns inspired by traditional Nigerian fabrics.

Queen V: the roots of cultural appropriation

Collage

Would you consider a pair of glasses to be a disability aid? 

Thomas Chandler's collage is inspired by the Fitzwilliam Museum's portraits of Sir John Finch and Sir Thomas Baines by Carlo Dolci.

Finch and Baines, both trained physicians, met while studying at Cambridge in the 1640s. They were inseparable throughout a relationship that lasted 36 years, and were buried together in a joint monument in Christ's College.

A Song Incomplete

Collage with paper and paint