When in Suriname: you are warmly invited to a special evening at Readytex Art Gallery, where art and the environment converge: the opening of the exhibition M’ma Aisa e krey (Mother Earth is Crying) – Awareness of the Environment in Art, from May 15t until June 28.
The opening night will take place on Thursday, May 15 at 7:15 PM (doors open at 7:00 PM) and will begin with three compelling presentations:
Dimitri Tjon Sie Fat (Technical Specialist MapBiomas) – Environment, society, and humanity
Monique Pool (Director, Green Heritage Fund) – Biodiversity with a focus on fauna
Jamille Haarloo (Researcher CELOS/NARENA) – Climate change

For the exhibition M’ma Aisa e krey – Awareness of the Environment in Art, curator and artist Kit-Ling Tjon Pian Gi has selected works by seventeen environmentally conscious artists. The works on display include, among others, ‘Recycle Art’ and art made primarily with natural materials. The artists use unique concepts for various environmental aspects.
With his painting Petition, Sunil Puljhun wants to offer a visual petition to policymakers. “We as humans are responsible for the destruction and pollution of our environment,” he says. His focus is particularly on air pollution and the consequences for our youth: “Do we really want a future where humans have to walk around wearing gas masks?”
John Lie A Fo is especially captivated by the remarkable balance between the natural and spiritual world among tribal peoples. In his work Nature Talks, he uses symbols of Indigenous and Maroon communities to speak about the destruction of nature by humans.
Shaundell Horton’s work serves as a metaphor for the mighty and seemingly impenetrable rainforest, which is being threatened by the actions of a small group of gold miners.
In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill inspired socially critical artist Kurt Nahar to create a series of artworks. Two of these are on display in this exhibition.
Kit-Ling Tjon Pian Gi raises questions such as: “As one of the three carbon-negative countries in the world, do we also have the purest water and the cleanest air?”
For Rinaldo Klas, Suriname’s biodiversity and the threat to this natural wealth have been central themes in his work for decades.
The other participating artists – Dhiradj Ramsamoedj, Hanka Wolterstorff, Kenneth Flijders, Miguel Keerveld, René Tosari, Maartje Jaquet (in collaboration with Klas), Roddney Tjon Poen Gie, Sri Irodikromo, Soeki Irodikromo (†), and guest artists Sirano Zalman and Lyroy Caupain – each present environment and environmental issues in their own unique and compelling way.
Erlan Sleur created a short video specifically for this exhibition, featuring authentic footage he captured himself, showing the devastating environmental effects of gold mining.

This is the work Rinaldo Klas and I made for this exhibition, it’s called Mama Aisa (Mother Earth), acrylic paint on 110x100cm canvas. We worked together on two painting last February 2025. The other painting will be exhibited this summer, during the Surinaamse Maanden (Surinam Months) in the Amstelkerk (Amstel Church), Amsterdam.