At Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, Bangladeshi artist Soma Surovi Jannat’s debut UK exhibition explores the Sundarbans’ ecological crisis, connecting climate change, displacement and inequality to urgent global realities.
As climate threats intensify worldwide, the slow demise of the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove ecosystem, is taking centre stage in a powerful new exhibition by Bangladeshi artist Soma Surovi Jannat, linking local environmental collapse to global futures.
Hosted at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, Climate Culture Care opens on March 28 and runs through November 1. The show marks the Dhaka-born artist’s first solo exhibition in the UK and the first by a Bangladesh-based artist at a UK museum, positioning her work within an urgent international climate conversation.
With nearly two-thirds of Bangladesh lying less than five metres above sea level, the country remains one of the most climate-vulnerable nations. A recent study by Johns Hopkins University warns that by 2050, rising seas could submerge up to 17 percent of its land and 30 percent of its agricultural areas, despite Bangladesh contributing only a negligible share of global emissions.
Drawing on these realities, Surovi’s works explore the deep intersection between environmental destruction and social inequality. Developed partly during her 2023 residency at the Ashmolean, the exhibition features around 20 paintings and drawings inspired by the fragile ecology of the Sundarbans, where more than 13 million people face rising salinity, intensifying cyclones and land loss.
Curators at the Ashmolean note that the exhibition “connects environmental fragility with human vulnerability,” highlighting how climate change disproportionately affects already marginalised communities, an idea that runs consistently through Surovi’s practice.
Visually, the artist constructs intricate, dreamlike worlds where humans, animals and mythological figures merge. Drawing on local folklore such as Bonbibi, alongside South Asian artistic traditions, her work blends the ecological with the spiritual, creating a distinctive visual language rooted in the delta.
This visual approach becomes most striking in her exploration of climate displacement. In the large-scale scroll Between the Sea and the Sky, Who Holds the Ground?, figures drift across polluted waters, reimagined as climate migrants forced to move as environmental conditions deteriorate. The work draws parallels between present-day displacement and historical systems of extraction and inequality.
While the exhibition also engages with colonial-era representations and social hierarchies including race and caste, these elements are tightly woven into the broader narrative of inequality, reinforcing how environmental and social injustices remain interconnected.
“Art, history and activism are deeply entwined,” Surovi says, underscoring her commitment to amplifying overlooked voices and confronting difficult truths through her work.
Her works frequently incorporate organic materials, creating layered, multi-dimensional compositions that invite audience interaction. In recent years, her focus has turned to the fragile ecosystem of the Sundarbans, using it as a lens to examine the global climate crisis and the deep-rooted links between environmental degradation and social inequalities.
Surovi’s growing reputation has been reinforced by a series of major accolades. She won the prestigious Samdani Art Award at the Dhaka Art Summit 2020, which included a residency at the Delfina Foundation. In the same year, she received the Young Artist Award from the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
In 2023, she became the first Bangladeshi artist selected for the Frere Hall South Asian Artist in Residence programme at the Ashmolean Museum, part of the University of Oxford, a milestone that led to her UK solo exhibition and further cemented her presence on the global art stage.
Her work has also been featured in several international exhibitions, including Colomboscope 2024 in Sri Lanka, Paint Your Own Village at the Kora Contemporary Arts Center in 2023, the Serendipity Arts Festival in India and the Beijing International Art Biennale in China.
Art observers say Surovi’s work stands out for its ability to connect local environmental realities with global concerns. By grounding her practice in the lived experiences of vulnerable communities, she offers a compelling narrative of resilience while challenging audiences to confront the broader implications of climate change.
As sea levels rise and climate displacement accelerates, Climate Culture Care delivers a stark message: what is unfolding in Bangladesh today may well define the shared future of vulnerable communities worldwide.
