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Brandon Tay: Sangkalan
2026-04-15 - 2026-10-25 | Various Locations, -, Singapore, Singapore, -
Step into Brandon Tay: Sangkalan, an evolving installation of a fictional island ecosystem where fragments of a “lost” coastal culture are shaped through three species — a fruit, an insect, and a bird. Together, their rhythms of growth, flight and song weave a vivid picture of how humans and nature might share perception, memory, and meaning.
Travelling across four regional libraries in Woodlands, Tampines, Jurong and Punggol, the installation unfolds as a living archive that evolves with each presentation. Visitors can encounter new elements over time, making each stop a slightly different experience. Through vibrant textiles, sculptural forms, and archival materials, Singaporean artist Brandon Tay translates the island’s collective memories into a language of colour, geometry, and symbols. Echoing the decentralised logic of blockchain networks, Sangkalan invites visitors to reimagine information systems, their origins and how nature might inspire new ways of sensing, connecting, and remembering.
Brandon Tay: Sangkalan is held in collaboration with the National Library Board. Through the Library showcases, SAM continues to extend contemporary art beyond traditional museum settings and into civic and community spaces, encouraging encounters with contemporary art in unexpected and accessible everyday environments.
Venues:

15 April – 31 May 2026: Woodlands Regional Library
3 June – 19 July 2026: Tampines Regional Library
22 July – 6 September 2026: Jurong Regional Library
9 September – 25 October 2026: Punggol Regional Library

Elia Nurvista and Bagus Pandega: Nafasan Bumi ~ An Endless Harvest
2026-01-16 10:00 - 2026-05-31 19:00 (Asia/Singapore) | Singapore Art Museum at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 39 Keppel Rd, #01-02 Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore 089065, Singapore, 089065, Singapore
Artists Elia Nurvista and Bagus Pandega explore how the demands of a relentless extraction, from plantations to electric futures, cast a shadow on the very “breath of the Earth.”
Elia Nurvista and Bagus Pandega: Nafasan Bumi ~ An Endless Harvest imagines the afterlives of materials that persist long after their use, outlasting our time in this age of excess. Plantations, mining sites, and the promise of electric vehicle technologies become places where the stories of tomorrow are formed, bound by Indonesia’s extractive economies whose resources sustain the pulse of today’s global demand.
From the need for oxygen to nickel’s role in lithium-ion technologies, from the cutting down of forests to palm oil’s many applications, these materials represent the state of the Earth’s breath (Nafasan Bumi) today, strained by extraction. The planet’s natural rhythms no longer move freely but are drawn into the labour of industry, breathing through the exhaustion of a harvest that never ends.
Across the exhibition, labour appears as both memory and speculation, a rhythm shared by humans, machines, and the living world. Conveyor belts, once emblems of the industrial revolution and the mechanisation of labour, now hum to the pulse of tropical plants, creating a continuous cycle of productivity. Nearby, sculptures cast in palm oil wax evoke the stillness of carved stone yet resist ideals of perfection, creating a dreamscape haunted by plantation residues. Others, made from discarded palm waste, hold the tension between fragility and endurance.
Together, these artworks trace how human and non-human life have been enmeshed in cycles of ceaseless pursuit of productivity, asking: What will the future shaped by these material conditions? Like the recurring haze that engulfs Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia during the southwest monsoon, the Earth’s breath, shadowed by an endless harvest, lingers as a reminder of what extraction conceals and refuses to let us forget. ~

Peacock Power: Beauty and Symbolism Across Cultures
2025-10-31 10:00 - 2026-08-30 19:00 | Peranakan Museum, 39 Armenian Street, Singapore, Singapore 179941, Singapore
With its dazzling feathers and spectacular tail, the peacock has long symbolised beauty, power, and divinity across Asia. For centuries, its striking form has captivated artists and devotees alike, inspiring works that range from sacred images to everyday adornment.
The peacock motif travelled between cultures. Peranakan art, shaped by the convergence of multiple influences, is the starting point for this journey. Treasures from the National Collection and important lenders explore the bird’s presence in a broad range of artistic disciplines. Each object invites visitors to consider how a motif moved between regions and contexts, revealing the networks that connect peoples and how artistic traditions evolve through exchange.
The exhibition presents these connections through colourful displays, interactive stations, and lively programmes. A new work by artist Ernest Goh explores the peacock in the context of its symbolism, cultural heritage, and ecology.

Engage with history through art at Temple, National Gallery Singapore’s first rooftop installation integrating kinetic motion and sound
2025-10-25 10:00 - 2026-10-11 19:00 | National Gallery Singapore, 1 St. Andrew's Road #01-01, Singapore, 178957, Singapore
Embark on a meditative experience at Temple, a new participatory artwork by Vietnamese-American artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen. Commissioned by National Gallery Singapore for its Ng Teng Fong Roof Garden Commission series and presented as part of Singapore Biennale 2025: pure intention, Temple invites visitors to reflect on history and contemplate the impact of war through a multisensorial experience that blends kinetic motion and sound – underscoring the Gallery’s mission to connect the art of Singapore and Southeast Asia to the world and foster critical dialogue on global issues through art.
Featuring bells and mobiles crafted from recovered and defused unexploded ordnance (UXO) from the Vietnam War, visitors are encouraged to strike the defused shells, gongs, and chimes, creating a meditative soundscape. Through this transformation of weapons of war into instruments of peace, Nguyen inspires ideas of karmic balance, reincarnation, and the memories embedded within materials, offering a powerful lens for healing and reconciliation.
Temple is the eighth edition of the Ng Teng Fong Roof Garden Commission.

The Living Room
2025-09-12 - 2026-07-19 | Singapore Art Museum at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 39 Keppel Rd, #01-02 Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore 089065, Singapore, 089065, Singapore
Singapore Art Museum (SAM) presents its latest exhibition The Living Room, as part of the final chapter of Collection Project: Communicating, Convening, Commoning—a long-term collaboration between SAM, Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA), and Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA). Housed at SAM’s refreshed collection gallery, the exhibition brings together performance-based works from the collections of all three institutions to explore how performances – fleeting by nature – can be remembered, reactivated, and carried forward through different forms of engagement. At its heart is a central question: What happens to a performance when it ends? Where does its liveness go, and how might we make sense of what remains?
Featuring works by renowned local and international artists such as Ezzam Rahman, Chuyia Chia, Kim Garam, Brian Fuata and others, The Living Room presents a breadth of practices spanning live performances, video, installation, performance traces, re-enactments, and artist-led activations. Taking inspiration from the living room as a space for gathering and presence, the exhibition invites visitors into an evolving environment that is brought to life through activation, conversation, and exchange. By bringing together works grounded in lived experience, The Living Room opens new ways of understanding how performance lives on through objects, memory, interaction, and shared encounters.
The Living Room is showcased alongside Talking Objects at SAM’s collection gallery. Together, they create a reflective space where personal and collective experiences converge, offering insights into individual narratives and broader social and cultural conditions.

Talking Objects
2025-09-12 - 2026-07-19 | Singapore Art Museum at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 39 Keppel Rd, #01-02 Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore 089065, Singapore, 089065, Singapore
Singapore Art Museum (SAM) presents Talking Objects, its latest exhibition at the dedicated collection gallery. Drawn from the museum’s collection, the exhibition explores how everyday objects – commonplace items, familiar scenes and everyday representations — become vessels of memory, meaning, and emotion when seen through the lens of artists and their practices. Beyond materiality, Talking Objects considers how even the most everyday forms can become instruments of expression. In the hands of artists, the ordinary takes on new significance, inviting us to look again at the world around us.
Featuring works by widely recognised artists from across Asia, including Alwin Reamillo, Suzann Victor, and Christine Ay Tjoe, Talking Objects showcases a diversity of artistic voices and practices, while offering insights into SAM’s ongoing research into the material and conceptual languages of contemporary art in the region. These artworks resonate with shared human experiences while remaining grounded in the particularities of place and personal history. The exhibition invites visitors to slow down, reflect, and rediscover the quiet power of objects in shaping how we see and understand the world.
Talking Objects is housed alongside The Living Room in SAM’s collection gallery. Together, they create a reflective space where personal and collective experiences converge, offering insights into individual narratives and broader social and cultural conditions.

Let’s Play! The Art and Design of Asian Games
2025-09-05 - 2026-06-07 | Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM), 1 Empress Place, 179555, Singapore
Games are among humanity’s oldest shared experiences – a source of joy, challenge, and connection for thousands of years. In Asia, they have developed in remarkably diverse ways, from the lively, fast-paced rhythms of mahjong and congkak to the contemplative strategy of go and chess. They have entertained and educated, reflected power and status, and acted as metaphors for life.
This exhibition explores the rich history of Asian games and the role they have played in shaping culture, identity, and community. Some travelled widely, taking on new forms and meanings across borders. Others became tools for mental training or expressions of artistic ideals. Even today, they remain at the frontier of innovation – as seen in the rise of artificial intelligence.
Many of the games on display are also works of extraordinary beauty and craftsmanship. As you explore the exhibition, we invite you to discover how the act of play continues to inspire, evolve, and connect people across time and place.
Let’s Play! incorporates playable interactives, outdoor installations, collaborations with schools and local game associations, and a diverse line-up of programmes and talks.

Benchmarks
2023-08-02 - 2026-07-31 | The Arts House, 1 Old Parliament Ln, Singapore 179429, Singapore, Singapore, 179429, Singapore
Experience the Civic District afresh this August 2023 onwards, with Benchmarks, a new public art trail commissioned by the Civic District Alliance (CDA). Designed by six Singapore-based artists, Lua Boon Kai, Joyce Beetuan Koh, Immanuel Koh, Yang Jie, Jeffrey Tan and Jason Wee, the public art initiative features a series of six unconventional artwork benches inspired by punctuation marks dotted around the arts and culture precinct. Each art bench draws from the rich heritage of the district, inviting visitors to have meaningful exchanges with themselves, other visitors, or even the surroundings while appreciating the beauty of the Civic District and its colourful stories. These art benches for Benchmarks are located at key areas of the Civic District, such as the Asian Civilisations Museum, The Arts House, The Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay and along the Singapore River.
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Website: https://artshouselimited.sg/civic-district
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