In her first UK solo exhibition, and the first solo exhibition of a Bangladesh-based artist in a UK museum, Soma Surovi Jannat (chosen name Surovi, born 1990 in Dhaka, Bangladesh) uses the Sundarbans forest and the Ashmolean’s collection as inspiration to reflect on environmental issues and the interconnectedness of nature and humanity.
Created following a residency at the Ashmolean in 2023, Surovi’s paintings and drawings, capturing urgent global environmental issues, explore the link between natural disasters and social inequalities. Curated by Mallica Kumbera Landrus, the Ashmolean’s Keeper of Eastern Art and Curator of South Asian Art, the exhibition features around 40 objects, including various works on paper, a 30-foot-long scroll, and an ephemeral drawing that the artist completed directly on the wall of the gallery space.
Surovi’s work examines environmental and social circumstances particularly in the Sundarbans, an extensive forest spanning southern Bangladesh and the Indian State of West Bengal, connected by a system of several hundred rivers that weave through it. The Sundarbans is home to the world’s largest mangrove forest and an array of wildlife, including the endangered Bengal tiger, as well as 13 million people, all threatened by the effects of climate change in this vulnerable region.
Despite an increase in cyclonic storms and rising sea levels creating significant challenges to everyday life, people remain thanks to strong cultural and economic ties, with the forest offering sustenance as well as a sense of identity to its inhabitants. Surovi’s work addresses the beauty and fragility of the Sundarbans, urging us to consider our responsibility towards the environment and serving as a powerful reminder of the vulnerability faced by certain communities.
The majority of works in Climate Culture Care, all created between 2023 and 2025, were influenced by the artist’s encounters and research during her residency at the Ashmolean, Oxford, during which she explored symbolic aspects of the collection. For example, Surovi’s work on paper Resensitizing the Brown Narrative (2023) was inspired by clay figures portraying Indian castes within the collection as well as subsequent conversations exploring shades of brown and how South Asian bodies have historically been framed.
Until 1 November, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, ashmolean.org
