Sophie Green’s Wildlife-Conscious Show Opens in Dubai
Sophie Green at The Saddest Show on Earth opening in London | ©️David Wickham
Acclaimed contemporary artist, Sophie Green, brings her powerful and provocative collection, Commodities, to Dubai, where it will be exhibited at Gallery27, following its successful launch in London last year. The collection continues to spark critical dialogue around wildlife conservation, consumerism, and humanity’s complex relationship with the natural world.
Originally unveiled in London at The Vaults underneath Waterloo Station (off the famous Leake Street, founded by Banksy) to wide critical attention, Commodities is a bold commentary on the commodification of wildlife, drawing unsettling parallels between the exploitation of animals and the consumer-driven society that enables it. The collection then went on to be showcased at the prestigious Royal Society of Arts in London, before continuing its journey to the UAE. Now presented to an international audience in Dubai, the collection’s message feels both timely and universal.
The exhibition arrives amid a broader cultural moment, in which artists are increasingly using their platforms to spotlight environmental and ethical concerns. Much like the recent wave of high-profile street art drawing attention to the plight of wildlife, Green’s work offers a complementary and deeply considered perspective, rooted in realism, symbolism, and activism. Her Commodities collection deepens the global conversation on conservation and the role contemporary art can play in driving awareness and change.
With a growing base of high-profile supporters, Green’s meticulously detailed, photorealistic paintings have raised six figures for conservation and environmental causes and are held by collectors around the world.
Drawing inspiration from Dante’s Divine Comedy, Rodin’s Le Penseur , and even the controversial aesthetics of modern haute couture, Green, who is outspoken about using art as a vehicle for positive change, says of the collection: “This is not a celebration of nature.”
Sophie Green with one of the pieces in the collection, Reflection.
Instead, Green describes Commodities as an “inferno”: a stark examination of the “bizarre and entitled” ways humans objectify and consume the natural world. The collection depicts animals posed on plinths against stark white backgrounds, evoking museum displays or luxury showrooms. Through the use of white space, contrast, and unsettling stillness, Green forces the viewer into an uncomfortable confrontation with how wildlife is displayed, valued, and ultimately exploited.
Described by National Geographic as “a bridge between photography and reality,” Green’s work has previously been exhibited at the Houses of Parliament, COP26, and numerous high-profile, star-studded auctions. In 2022, she donated 30% of her Impermanence collection to conservation initiatives, raising £90,000 for wildlife causes.
Reflecting on the collection, Green states:
“This is wildlife void of both ‘wild’ and ‘life’. A world where we exhibit the most beautiful creatures on this planet on plinths like museum artefacts is not far removed from the one we live in today, where animals are used for fashion, entertainment, food, sport, and labour.”
The Commodities exhibition at Gallery27, Dubai, invites audiences to confront these uncomfortable realities and reconsider the true cost of consumerism on the natural world.