UK’s Ashmolean Museum Joins Forces with Samdani Art Foundation to Build Bangladeshi Art Collection

The Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford in the UK and the Samdani Art Foundation (SAF) based in Dhaka have joined forces on a new program focused on contemporary art from Bangladesh. The partnership will bring a Bangladeshi artist to Oxford each year and will also see the museum build a dedicated collection of contemporary Bangladeshi art.

The first artist selected for the Ashmolean Samdani Visiting Artist program is Munem Wasif, a Dhaka-based artist and curator. Wasif is spending two weeks at the museum, where he’s working with its collections and archives. His practice brings together photography, moving image, archival materials, and found objects, often exploring ideas around impermanence, insecurity, and memory. During his time at the Ashmolean, Wasif will be looking at the colonial history of Bengal and considering how the museum’s collections might connect with his existing work.

“For years, my practice has returned to the colonial history of Bengal, often through the fragments that remain,” Wasif said in a statement. “I’m interested in encountering objects and artworks firsthand, and seeing how they might connect with questions I have been exploring through photography, prints, and textiles.”

The partnership also gives the Ashmolean a new way to expand its holdings of contemporary art from Bangladesh. In collaboration with SAF, the museum will acquire works by Bangladeshi artists each year. It has already bought works by Ashfika Rahman with support from the foundation. The new acquisitions will add to the Ashmolean’s existing collection of South Asian art, which it says is among the most extensive in the UK outside London. The museum will also work with SAF on research into Bangladesh’s contemporary art scene.

Mallica Kumbera Landrus, curator of Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian art at the Ashmolean, said the SAF partnership would strengthen the museum’s connections with artists from Bangladesh. “The museum has remarkable collections from across South Asia, and this partnership gives us an exciting opportunity to develop that story through contemporary Bangladeshi art and artists,” she said. The program builds on SAF’s 15 years of work supporting artists and cultural initiatives in Bangladesh and creating opportunities for artists to work internationally. The foundation, established by Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani, has supported projects including the Dhaka Art Summit and the Samdani Art Award.

Nadia Samdani, SAF’s president, said the partnership would extend that work into a new institutional setting. “We are proud to see this vision take shape at a world-leading institution,” she said.
The foundation has recently supported the first UK solo museum exhibition by a Bangladesh-based artist, with Soma Surovi Jannat presenting her work at the Ashmolean in March 2026. Jannat was the winner of the 2020 Samdani Art Award.

SAF has also announced a partnership with the Kunsthalle Basel for the Samdani Art Award in November 2026, when eight finalists will take part in Regionale 27 alongside artists from the Basel region. In Bangladesh, the foundation runs Srihatta—the Samdani Art Centre and Sculpture Park in Sylhet. The center hosts artist residencies and community projects and is one of the founding organizations of Photosynthesis, an international residency network supported by the Getty Foundation. Its first Photosynthesis residency at Srihatta is due to begin in December 2026, with Indian interdisciplinary artist Himali Singh Soin.