2026 EXHIBITION PROGRAMME - Press Release
20 October 2025
The Ashmolean is pleased to announce its programme of major exhibitions and temporary displays for 2026.
Opening in spring, In Bloom: How Plants Changed Our World will be a spectacular journey across the globe to trace the story of how our most beloved plants and flowers were transported over oceans to transform landscapes, economies and cultures in unprecedented ways.
From October 2026, Aphrodite: the Making of a Goddess will explore the world of the Greek goddess of love, beauty and desire who, from her origins in Cyprus, transformed into the Roman Venus and evolved into an iconic figure still influencing art, literature and ideas today.
The ticketed exhibition programme will be accompanied by a series of free exhibitions and temporary displays, with new work by contemporary artists and rotations from the Ashmolean’s extraordinary holdings from the stores.
The Ashmolean NOW programme continues from March with a new show by Bangladeshi artist Soma Surovi Jannat on the themes of climate, culture and care. From November, pioneering British photographer Garry Fabian Miller will show new work together with landscapes by 19th-century painter Samuel Palmer which have influenced Miller’s practice.
Elsewhere in the galleries, the varied programme will include Colonial Views of India - amazing photographs from the late 19th century taken by a British colonial officer; and Sisters, Brothers, Others which will look at the representation of different nationalities and ethnicities in modern China.
TICKETED EXHIBITIONS
In Bloom: How Plants Changed Our World
19 March–16 August 2026, The John Sainsbury Exhibition Galleries
How much do we know about the plants and flowers in our gardens, allotments and vases? Beyond their beauty, many have hidden histories - tales of exploration, obsession and discovery. This new exhibition will take visitors on a journey from Oxford, across the world and back, uncovering the stories behind some of Britain’s most beloved blooms. Featuring over 100 artworks including drawings, paintings, rare prints and ceramics, In Bloom will share the curiosity and ingenuity of early plant explorers and the networks that shaped global trade, to show how plants changed the world, leaving a legacy that still shapes our environments today.
Aphrodite: The Making of a Goddess
8 October 2026–11 April 2027, The John Sainsbury Exhibition Galleries
The Ashmolean’s autumn 2026 exhibition will be dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite, tracing her journey from a Bronze Age cult in Cyprus to her transformation as the Roman Venus and her rebirth in Botticelli’s luminous vision – one of the most recognisable faces ever depicted. The Making of a Goddess follows Aphrodite’s story through two millennia of artistic reinvention, right up to the present. The exhibition will feature loans from major institutions around the world, including the celebrated ‘Lely Venus’ from the Royal Collection, Yves Klein’s Blue Venus, multiple pieces from the Louvre and early objects rarely shown outside Cyprus. Together they will tell the story of one of the most enduring and influential figures in the history of art.
FREE EXHIBITIONS AND DISPLAYS
Ashmolean NOW
Soma Surovi Jannat: Climate Culture Care
28 March–1 November 2026, Gallery 8
As the first Bangladeshi artist-in-residence at the Ashmolean, this exhibition marks Soma Surovi Jannat’s (b. 1990) debut museum show in the UK and the first solo exhibition of a Bangladesh-based artist in this country. Surovi draws inspiration from the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world, and the Ashmolean collections, to address the climate crisis. Her paintings, drawings and mixed media work reflect on the interconnectedness of nature and humanity, critiquing the link between natural disasters and social inequalities. The exhibition will include Ashmolean objects that inspired Surovi’s imagined landscapes and new works which include various works on paper, a 30-foot-long scroll, and an ephemeral drawing which she will complete directly on the gallery walls.
Colonial Views of India: Photographs by Eugene Clutterbuck Impey
11 April–13 December 2026, Gallery 29
This display will offer a rare glimpse of late-19th-century India, captured through the lens of British colonial officer Eugene Clutterbuck Impey (1830–1904). Impey worked in India for the East India Company from 1851 and served as a political agent at posts across the country from 1858 during a period when photography and ethnography were used to exert control over the Subcontinent. People, places, animals and architecture were recorded as part of a broader project to observe and manage local communities. The Ashmolean’s Eastern Art archives hold over 300 of Impey’s photographs and negatives, and a selection will be shown in the Museum for the first time. Featuring 25 newly printed works alongside an original 19th-century print and album, the display will reveal remarkable scenes of people, customs and landscapes.
Brothers, Sisters, Others: Nationality and Modern Chinese Art
11 July 2026–March 2027 (closing date to be confirmed)
Brothers, Sisters, Others will examine the representation of national and ethnic difference in modern art from the People’s Republic of China. It will combine a variety of media, including lithographic and wood-block prints, oil and ink painting, paper-cuts, and books. Ranging from political propaganda posters to intimate self-portraits, the exhibition will give visitors an insight into the various ways that national and ethnic unity and difference have been shown from the late-19th to the start of the 21st century.
Ashmolean NOW
Garry Fabian Miller: Between the Moon and the Hawthorn
November 2026–June 2027 (dates to be confirmed), Gallery 8
Garry Fabian Miller (b. 1957, Bristol) is one of the most progressive figures in contemporary photography. Since the mid-80s, he has worked without a camera to explore the possibilities of light as both medium and subject. Experimenting with photographic materials and exposure time – which can last for days – his photos feature intensely saturated colours, not seen before in conventional photography. This new exhibition will present Miller’s photographs in dialogue with works by one of his key artistic influences, Samuel Palmer (1805–81), chosen from the Ashmolean’s collections. Miller compares Palmer’s pioneering use of materials with his own practice, pushing the limits of photography in the dark room.
ENDS
Contact details
Claire Parris, Strategic Communications Manager, University of Oxford Museums and Gardens
claire.parris@glam.ox.ac.uk / 07833 384 512
Press images
Images for editorial use are available to download at: https://go.glam.ox.ac.uk/Ashmolean2026
Notes to editors
The Ashmolean is the University of Oxford’s museum of art and archaeology, founded in 1683. Our world-famous collections range from Egyptian mummies to contemporary art, telling human stories across cultures and across time.
Address: Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PH
Open: Monday–Sunday 10:00–17:00
General admission: Free
Exhibition tickets: https://www.ashmolean.org/exhibitions
Images
Banner image and below:
Crouching Aphrodite
Roman, after Hellenistic original
Marble, 125 x 53 x 65 cm
Royal Collection Trust
Simon Verelst (1644–1721)
A Vase of Flowers, c. 1669–75
Oil on canvas
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Soma Surovi Jannat (b. 1990)
Where every leaf holds a tale (Dimer Char), 2024
Archival ink pen on paper, acrylic colour, gold leaf, 57 x 76 cm
© Soma Surovi Jannat
Photographer: Colonel Eugene Clutterbuck Impey (1830–1904)
Detail of Seated tiger with tripod shadow, c. 1858–65
Photographic plate, glass, 8.2 x 15.8 cm
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
A Ge (b. 1948)
Small Mirror, 1991
Multiblock woodcut, ink on paper, 96.3 x 71.2 cm
© A Ge
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Garry Fabian Miller (b. 1957)
Year One: Arsenic 7, January 2007
Water, light, unique dye destruction print, 50.5 x 40.5 cm
© Garry Fabian Miller
