STPI Symposium 2026 | Radical Printmaking in Asia
2026-01-24 10:30 - 12:00 (Asia/Singapore) | 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Rd, 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Rd, Singapore, Singapore
This panel focuses on radical moments, past and present, when print became a tool to call forth new artistic worlds and solidarities. Speakers include Japanese print specialist Nozomi Naoi; Bishal Yonjan, who traces a story of Global South Asia through journals produced by 20th-century Nepalese artists; and Sook-Kyung Lee, Artistic Director of the 2023 Gwangju Biennale, which featured woodcuts memorialising the Gwangju May 18 democratic movement by Malaysian collective Pangrok Sulap.

SG Culture Pass credits can be used to offset ticket purchases of this programme.

Speakers: Bishal Yonjan (Artist, curator, and member, Kalā Kulo), Nozomi Naoi (Associate Professor, Department of Japanese Studies, NUS), Sook-Kyung Lee (Director, The Whitworth, and Professor, Curatorial Practices, The University of Manchester)
Moderator: Siddharta Perez (Curatorial Lead, NUS Museum)

Shade & Sip: Fundraiser Edition
2026-01-24 | Friday’s Garden, 22 Sin Ming Lane, #01-84, Midview City, Singapore, 573969, Singapore
Join us for an evening of good conversation and great wine as we make art and swap books. Online bookstore Wormhole and local artist Dirty Doodies team up for a special fundraiser edition of Shade & Sip to support ArtsWok Collaborative, a charity that brings art-making, community building, and civic participation together in meaningful ways.
Attendees get to colour an exclusive Dirty Doodies art print and take it home as a memento, enjoy two glasses* of BoundbyWine’s thoughtfully curated selections, take part in a book swap and get personalised book recommendations! Plus, opt for the Special Ticket to receive a limited-edition Dirty Doodies print, illustrated only for this event, with the option to request your favourite book to be featured in it (very limited slots!)
All net proceeds go to supporting ArtsWok Collaborative. Donations of $10 and above will qualify for 250% tax deduction and its impact will be doubled by the Cultural Matching Fund.
* Non-alcoholic beverage options available.

STPI Symposium 2026 | Keynote Conversation: Print as Practice
2026-01-23 15:30 - 17:00 | 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Rd, 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Rd, Singapore, Singapore
“You can make art out of anything,” says artist Michael Craig-Martin. “It is rather a question of how transformation occurs.” That profound and unruly process of artistic transformation anchors this talk, which explores how two contemporary masters—Michael Craig-Martin and Pinaree Sanpitak—have used prints to bridge the gap between society and fine art.

SG Culture Pass credits can be used to offset ticket purchases of this programme.

Speakers: Michael Craig-Martin (Artist), Pinaree Sanpitak (Artist)
Moderator: Adele Tan (Senior Curator and Assistant Director of Curatorial Programmes, National Gallery Singapore)

STPI Symposium 2026 | New (Print) Markets, New (Print) Worlds
2026-01-23 13:30 - 15:00 | 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Rd, 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Rd, Singapore, Singapore
Are we in a new print renaissance? As prints and editions surge in popularity, artnet’s Vivienne Chow invites leaders in the field—Molly Steiger, Jenny Gibbs and Mazdak Sanii—to reflect on current trends and developments that are reshaping the global art market. What new art worlds and audiences are emerging amid generational and geopolitical shifts, and how are they redrawing today’s cultural and commercial landscapes?

SG Culture Pass credits can be used to offset ticket purchases of this programme.

Speakers: Molly Steiger (Senior Vice President and Senior International Specialist, Prints & Multiples, Sotheby’s), Jenny Gibbs (Executive Director, IFPDA), Mazdak Sanii (Founder and CEO, Avant Arte)
Moderator: Vivienne Chow (London Correspondent and Co-author of The Asia Pivot, artnet)

STPI Symposium 2026: The Politics of Print
2026-01-23 10:30 - 2026-01-24 18:00 | STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery, 41 Robertson Quay, Singapore, 238236, Singapore
How has print defined modern and contemporary art histories across geographies and generations, shaping cultural movements in the process? Conceived as a gathering for curious discussion, The Politics of Print invites speakers and audiences to participate in two days of lively conversations and debates.

Thinking about the legacies of print from the 19th century to the present, discussions will look at the transnational legacies of print as a political form; the radical use of print to drive artistic movements across Asia; current trends in collecting prints that are revealing historic shifts in the global art market; and how memes and NFTs, as works of art in an age of digital reproduction, fit into the history of print.

Punctuating these exchanges are artist roundtables with masters in their field, Michael Craig-Martin, Pinaree Sanpitak, Salima Hashmi and Rirkrit Tiravanija, plus the Singapore edition of Crit Club, a contextual performance project conceived by Cem A., the artist behind the art world’s favourite meme account, @freeze_magazine.

Organised by STPI, curated by Stephanie Bailey.

STPI Symposium 2026 | The Politics of Print
2026-01-23 10:30 - 12:00 | 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Rd, 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Rd, Singapore, Singapore
How political is print? This conversation between Wu Mo, Kathleen Ditzig and Özge Ersoy, moderated by Stephanie Bailey, looks at how print has shaped modern and contemporary art across geographies and generations: from modern master Zao Wou-Ki’s revolutionary adoption of print and MoMA’s influence on print practices in Southeast Asian art in the 20th century, to how archives of printed matter—such as catalogues and zines—are re-tracing Asia’s evolving art histories today.

SG Culture Pass credits can be used to offset ticket purchases of this programme.

Speakers: Wu Mo (Sigg Curator, M+), Kathleen Ditzig (Curator, National Gallery Singapore), Özge Ersoy (Executive Director, Asia Art Archive)
Moderator: Stephanie Bailey (Curator, The Politics of Print, and Lead Editor, print_screen)

ART SG 2026
2026-01-23 - 2026-01-25 | Marina Bay Sands, Sands Expo & Convention Centre, Begonia Junior Room, 3011 & 3012, 018956, Singapore
ART SG 2026, Southeast Asia’s global contemporary art fair, returns for its fourth edition this January. Presented by Founding and Lead Partner UBS, the fair is a hallmark event of Singapore Art Week, connecting new and seasoned collectors with leading artists, curators and partners at the centre of the region’s contemporary art movement.
Bringing together an exceptional line-up of 106 exhibitors from more than 30 countries and territories, ART SG 2026 offers an unparalleled opportunity to encounter works from some of the world’s leading galleries alongside today’s boldest emerging voices across three dynamic gallery sectors: GALLERIES, FOCUS, and FUTURES.
In a first for ART SG, Southeast Asian contemporary art platform S.E.A. Focus will be held within the fair. With a single ticket, visitors gain seamless access to both events, complemented by a curated programme of large-scale installations, film, panel discussions, performance art and more. Offering an immersive space for discovery for visitors of all backgrounds and interests, the integrated experience reinforces Singapore’s position as the region’s essential hub for global cultural and artistic exchange.
For more information on ART SG 2026, please visit: https://artsg.com.

S.E.A. Focus 2026: The Humane Agency
2026-01-23 - 2026-01-25 | Sands Expo & Convention Centre, FLAsia Licensing Village, Sands Expo & Convention Centre – Hall B, BB19 10 Bayfront Ave, Singapore 018956, Singapore, Singapore, 018956, Singapore
In a world shaped by shifting borders, changing climates, and diaspora, how do we choose to respond? S.E.A. Focus returns for its eighth edition under the curatorial theme The Humane Agency.
Curated by John Z.W. Tung, with artistic consultation by Emi Eu, Executive Director of STPI, the presentation highlights the quiet yet urgent force of artists who choose compassion over detachment. Instead of framing people as mere symbols of crisis, the works foreground human connection—as a site of relation, care and resilience.
Spanning a variety of formats, scale and media, galleries and artists from across Southeast Asia and beyond reflect on three pressing global currents: the persistence of conflict and our longing for peace, the intensifying ecological crisis, and the movement of communities across and beyond nation-states. Together, the works slow us down, deepen our capacity to feel and remind us that empathy is not optional—it is a method, an urgency and first step toward imagining a more connected, less estranged future.
Commissioned by the National Arts Council (NAC), S.E.A. Focus 2026 will be organised by and held at ART SG 2026 for the first time at the iconic Marina Bay Sands. Audiences are invited to experience how artists today act not just as observers of the world, but as active participants in shaping it.
More information on S.E.A. Focus can be found at https://seafocus.sg/.

Dialogue of Differences, presented by ART SEASONS Gallery
2026-01-22 12:00 - 2026-02-28 18:00 | Art Seasons Gallery, 50 Genting Lane, Cideco Industrial Complex #03-02, Singapore, Singapore, 349558, Singapore
Dialogue of Differences brings together artists whose practices confront the frictions shaping today’s geopolitical, cultural, and social landscapes. At a time when rising nationalist sentiment and renewed “war economies”— both literal and ideological, seek to reinforce old hierarchies, the exhibition offers a counterpoint through artistic dissent, complexity, and exchange. Rather than collapsing perspectives into simple binaries, it opens a space where contradiction and nuance become modes of resistance.
Participating artists: Awang Damit Ahmad, David Chan, Lester Lee, Umibaizurah Mahir@Ismail and Yin Chua.
All works are for sale.

The Print Show Singapore 2026
2026-01-22 10:00 - 2026-01-31 19:00 | STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery, 41 Robertson Quay, Singapore, 238236, Singapore
Bringing together leading print publishers and galleries from around the world, The Print Show Singapore, organised by STPI, showcases the works of distinguished contemporary artists for whom printmaking is a vital part of their practice. Featuring seminal figures from Asian print histories and beyond, the exhibition provides audiences with a rare opportunity to discover new and groundbreaking works.

Featured artists include Louise Bourgeois, Irfan Hendrian, Jeff Koons, Yayoi Kusama and Rirkrit Tiravanija, among others.

Rituals of Perception
2026-01-21 - 2026-03-01 | New Bahru (School Hall), New Bahru, 46 Kim Yam Rd, New Bahru, Singapore 239351, Singapore, Singapore
Tanoto Art Foundation’s (TAF) first major group exhibition Rituals of Perception will open on 21 January 2026 during Singapore Art Week. On view through 1 March 2026, the exhibition gathers works born from intimate dialogues between body and matter, unfolding through slow, contemplative, and iterative processes. Against the backdrop of digital acceleration and collective disenchantment, the exhibition turns toward practices that reattune us to presence, where every gesture and touch becomes a quiet act of resistance against an increasingly dehumanised sense of time. Staged at Singapore’s New Bahru School Hall, the exhibition features works from the Tanoto Family Collection, loans and new commissions by over twenty leading contemporary artists. Rituals of Perception is curated by Xiaoyu Weng, TAF Artistic Director. During the opening reception, artist Sriwhana Spong presented a new performance as part of her ongoing research, presented in Singapore for the first time.
To learn more about Rituals of Perception here.
Location
New Bahru School Hall, 46 Kim Yam Road, School Block, #02-02, Singapore 239351
Opening Hours
Opens Daily, 11am-7pm
Saturdays till 9pm

You Are Fire: A Live Performance of Sayat Nova Outtakes
2026-01-17 14:00 - 2026-01-18 15:00 | Oldham Theatre, 1 Canning Rise, Singapore 179868, Singapore, Singapore, 179868, Singapore
You Are Fire: A Live Performance of Sayat Nova Outtakes
January 16, 2026 | 8:00 PM – 9:40 PM | Friday
January 17, 2026 | 5:00 PM – 6:40 PM | Saturday
You Are Fire is a collaborative project envisioned by Elvin Brandhi and Daniel Bird.
This live film-performance reworks newly scanned 35mm outtakes and screen tests from the shooting of Sergei Parajanov’s The Colour of Pomegranates or Sayat Nova (1969) into 15 film miniatures. Originally conceived as a film-poem about the life of the poet-ashugh, Arutin Sayadyan, each miniature grows out of textures – Armenian, Georgian and Azeri architecture, landscapes and objects – enabling the authenticity of an era to emerge. Using Tigran Mansurian and Yuri Sayadian’s original soundtrack as raw material, the musical heritage of Sayat Nova is brought to the fore, reimagining a performance by an ashugh, or singer-poet bard, at the early 21st-century crossroads of analogue and digital media.
Reconciling West and East, You Are Fire explores Armenia as Europe’s avant-garde in Asia. The performance project is developed from the installation Temple of Cinema #1: Sayat Nova Outtakes. In 2019, it opened Art Directions at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Originally a collaboration between the Armenian Cinema Foundation in Yerevan and Fixafilm in Poland, it formed part of a restoration programme, the Hamo Bek-Nazarov Project, encompassing archives and institutions from the South Caucasus, Central Asia and Ukraine.
Working with both archival footage and audio samples, Brandhi and Bird subject the working materials of The Colour of Pomegranates to decollage and collage, resulting in a profane, live, shadow-film, where the subconscious is brought to the fore, along with all that was repressed or denied, not just by the Soviet censor, but Parajanov himself.
You Are Fire – Research, Practice and Process
Saturday, 17 January 2026, 2 – 3 pm | Oldham Theatre
In 2018, Daniel Bird began work on a project involving the scanning, cataloguing and studying of approximately one hundred cans of film held by the National Archives of Armenia, featuring outtakes, screen and camera tests from Sergei Parajanov’s The Colour of Pomegranates (1969). Through this process, You Are Fire: A Live Performance of Sayat Nova Outtakes was created, a live audio-visual performance that breathes new life into the rediscovered material.
Daniel Bird, the guest curator of the Retrospective: Sergei Parajanov at the Asian Film Archive, will share more about his research journey, creative process, and vision behind this unique work. Discover how film fragments, readings, and archival documents from film scripts and telegrams are combined to present this work that reimagines Parajanov’s iconic The Colour of Pomegranates.

Metamorphosis: Curated by Syed Muhammad Hafiz | Featuring Jaafar Latiff, Anniketyni Madian, Meta Enjelita and Khairulddin Wahab
2026-01-17 11:00 - 2026-02-28 19:00 | Cuturi Gallery, 61 Aliwal Street, Singapore 199937, Singapore, 228210, Singapore
Cuturi Gallery is delighted to present Metamorphosis, curated by independent curator and art historian Syed Muhammad Hafiz. The exhibition brings together works by Anniketyni Madian (b. 1986, Malaysia), Meta Enjelita (b. 1994, Indonesia), and Khairulddin Wahab (b. 1990, Singapore) in dialogue with the late Singaporean batik modernist Jaafar Latiff (1937–2007, Singapore). Through new responses to Latiff’s ideas and material experiments, Metamorphosis explores legacy as restless and evolving, highlighting contemporary practices across the Malay Archipelago, where art, craft, and tradition are constantly reimagined.
Central to the exhibition is Jaafar Latiff’s lifelong commitment to pushing batik beyond convention. Working on his own terms, he expanded the medium through abstraction, material experimentation, and an unwavering belief in artistic autonomy. His contributions, recognised through major institutional exhibitions and his role as an influential art educator, position him as a pivotal figure in Singapore’s post-independence art history.
Responding to Jaafar Latiff’s sustained innovation with batik and abstraction, the invited artists engage with his legacy through both material and conceptual transformation. Anniketyni Madian, known for her abstract sculptural works, draws on Iban folklore and Sarawakian cultural memory, embedding personal and ancestral narratives within universal forms. Latiff’s persistent exploration of abstraction offers a point of departure for her practice, where beneath seemingly universal forms lie traces of identity, heritage, and tradition. Meta Enjelita work explores the entangled matters of materiality, ecological and social structures, and her latest textile-based installation works incorporate stylised Jawi calligraphy inspired by Latiff’s Unspoken Dialogue series. Applying her signature rust-dyeing techniques, her works weave together traditional batik and calligraphic techniques into contemporary installation, giving form to a mutual conversation between art and craft. Khairulddin Wahab’s practice examines post-colonial histories, cultural geography, and environmental narratives. Similarly drawing on cultural narratives surrounding batik traditions, his latest work adds another dimension to his practice, especially after his residency at Lohjinawi, Yogyakarta, towards the end of 2025. Instead of working with his preferred acrylic paints, Khairulddin has decided to adopt batik-inspired techniques for his latest work – a commentary on the spice and nutmeg trade during the colonial era.
Together, these new works showcase some of Southeast Asia’s most dynamic young artists, revealing their critical engagement with art history, tradition, and material practice. By placing Jaafar Latiff’s works alongside those of younger artists, the exhibition offers additional perspectives through which to consider his practice. Metamorphosis positions Latiff’s ideas as ongoing and open to reinterpretation across generations.

Metamorphosis runs from 17 January to 28 February 2026 at Cuturi Gallery, Singapore.

Mirror Straits: A Taiwan-Singapore Joint Presentation
2026-01-17 - 2026-02-15 | artcommune gallery, 76 Bras Basah Road, #01-01, Singapore, 189558
In conjunction with Singapore Art Week 2026, artcommune and Liang Gallery are delighted to present ‘Mirror Straits’, a joint Taiwan-Singapore joint show featuring the works of 8 major Taiwanese and Singapore artists: Cheong Soo Pieng, Chen Wen Hsi, Lim Tze Peng, Wong Keen, Chen Cheng-Po, Yang San-Lang, Liao Shiou-Ping, and Lee Chung-Chung. ‘Mirror Straits’ is on view at artcommune gallery from 17 January to 15 February 2026, and will travel to Liang Gallery for its Taipei Leg in September-October 2026.
‘Mirror Straits’ opens officially on Saturday, 17 January, 3pm at artcommune gallery. The opening prefaces a panel discussion titled ‘Parallel Modernities: An Examination of ‘Chinese Diaspora Aesthetics’ in Taiwan and Singapore—A Conversation between Takamori Nobuo and Kwok Kian Chow’, that will take place between 4.30pm-5.45pm on the same day. All are welcome; RSVP required at kenix@artcommune.com.sg
Curated by Taiwanese independent curator Takamori Nobuo (chief-curator of 2021 Asian Arts Biennial, Phantasmapolis, organised by National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, and chief-curator of the current 2025 Green Island Biennial), the presentation explores the evolving identity of ethnic Chinese communities in the pre- and post-World War Il era, tracing their diasporic histories and the ways in which artistic expression transitioned, diverged, and flourished across regions.

From One Sky to Another by Melissa Tan
2026-01-17 - 2026-02-15 | Haridas Contemporary, CT Hub 2, 114 Lavender Street,Unit05-72, 338729, Singapore
Haridas Contemporary is thrilled to present Melissa Tan’s (b. 1989, Singapore) upcoming solo exhibition in which she debuts a new series of paintings. Tan is known for her intricately detailed metal and resin sculptures, with which she explores her long-standing interests in celestial mapping and mythology. In this new chapter — inspired by an etymological understanding of the word ‘map’, which in old Latin referred to a piece of cloth — Tan unfolds her stories from the scintillant planes of her sculptures, and transports them to vivid new worlds on canvas, where hidden maps of constellations hint at a shifting landscape and story.
In marked contrast to the elegant and steely glint characteristic of Tan’s past exhibitions, From One Sky To Another unfolds in vivid colour. Once incised into metal, Tan’s cast of characters and their stories now inhabit worlds of flesh, land, water, and sky. The palette of this series, ranging from earthy autumnal hues to crisp and clear blues, brings to mind the works of Renaissance masters such as Botticelli and Titian, both of whom Tan referenced for their representations of Greek gods and goddesses. In other works, looser brushwork and luminous colours recall the paintings of the Symbolists, imparting an enigmatic cast to the subject matter.

Turning Points III
2026-01-16 12:00 - 2026-01-27 20:00 | The Arts House, 1 Old Parliament Ln, Singapore 179429, Singapore, Singapore, 179429, Singapore
Now in its third year at Singapore Art Week, Turning Points III brings together five artists with disabilities whose works capture pivotal moments of artistic transformation. Each piece reflects a turning point where adversity sparks reinvention and exploration leads to new creative horizons.
In this exhibition, Aaron Yap will show clay animal figurines, Chong Yap Qing will pay homage to his mother’s recipes in still-life studies, Hugh Lee will present an abstract and architectural series of paintings, Kenji Teo will present anime-inspired artworks and Zack Ling will show a series of functional ceramic wares. These are the output from a year of mentorships with mentor artists Lewis Choo, Mary Bernadette Lee, Joshua Yang, Tristan Lim, and Kim Whye Lee.
Curated by John Tung, the exhibition offers a tapestry of resilience, adaptability, and introspection, inviting audiences to witness the creativity and complexity of change in an artist’s journey.

Elia Nurvista and Bagus Pandega: Nafasan Bumi ~ An Endless Harvest
2026-01-16 10:00 - 2026-05-31 19:00 | 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. ~

City Lines
2026-01-11 12:00 - 2026-02-11 18:00 | Maya Gallery, 57 Genting Lane, #05-00, Singapore 349564, 57 Genting Lane, #05-00 Singapore 349564, 349564, Singapore
Singapore’s urban landscape is constantly evolving. City Lines showcases ten artists whose work examines the invisible lines that connect people to their surroundings—the emotional and psychological aspects of the city that go beyond its visible architecture. From the quiet beauty of watercolour cityscapes to digital takes on architecture, and poetic views of urban life, City Lines showcases the rhythm of Singapore’s spaces. Beyond capturing façades—the shophouse, housing estate and urban forms, the exhibition tells a story of the artists’ connection with the city, the past and the present, real and imagined.
ARTISTS
Andrew Huang
Heiko Schulze
Idris Ali
Jeffrey Wandly
Kay Saputra
Masturah Sha’ari
Mayang Sari
Syazana Yassin
Terence Tan
Yeo Jian Long
Held at Maya Gallery from 11 January to 11 February 2026, City Lines will be part of the Singapore Art Week.

Neural Echoes: Enter The Sleep Lab
2026-01-09 17:00 - 2026-02-07 23:00 | The Arts House, 1 Old Parliament Ln, Singapore 179429, Singapore, Singapore, 179429, Singapore
50-minute narrative-driven, immersive experience with interactive puzzles. For 4-6 players.
SomniTech promises to revolutionise rest: a future where sleep is productive, optimised, and monetised. Their Brain–Computer Interface and experimental dream-tracking systems map susceptibility, guide sleep states, and deliver auditory instructions.
Many clinical trial participants never exited the programme. Dr. Adrian Tan, the iconic yet controversial mind behind SomniTech, disappeared shortly after. No one knows what drives him, or what horrors unfold behind those closed doors.
Will you go undercover in the clinical trials? Enter the lab, navigate controlled assessments, figure out what happened to the missing participants, and uncover the true purpose of SomniTech.

Bouquet For You
2026-01-09 13:00 - 2026-01-31 18:00 | Art ImA, 14 Circular Road, #03-02, Singapore 058412, Singapore, Singapore, 058412, Singapore
In the liminal spaces where time folds into timelessness and life meets mortality, Sung Min Woo’s art takes form. Sung’s debut solo exhibition in Singapore at Gallery Ima is more than a geographic milestone—it is a passage into an in-between realm where cultures, philosophies, and ecological ideas converge.

Born in 1974, Sung Min Woo trained in Oriental Painting at Hongik University, earning both her BFA and MFA, before completing a Ph.D. in Art Education at Korea National University of Education. This combined foundation of practice and theory shapes her distinctive approach. Working with silk, natural pigments, and powdered gold and silver, she draws on East Asian artistic traditions while reinterpreting them through a contemporary ecological lens. Her paintings go beyond representing nature; they interrogate its conditions, exploring what it means to emerge, endure, and ultimately disappear—ideas that resonate across cultures and time.

Working on silk, Sung layers natural pigments and dusts her surfaces with gold and silver powder. These metallic interventions do more than embellish; they suspend time, creating a luminous membrane where fleeting moments attain a sense of permanence. Her technique of saturation, repetition, and slow accumulation reflects the rhythms of germination, growth, decay, and renewal. Each stroke becomes a meditative gesture linking continuity with impermanence.

Grass is Sung’s enduring motif – modest yet resilient, thriving in overlooked spaces. She often depicts naturalised species, plants rooted in Korean soil but originating elsewhere, as metaphors for movement, adaptation, and coexistence. Once foreign, these species integrate into their environments, enriching ecological diversity. Through this imagery, Sung develops a visual lexicon of interdependence, where ecological processes mirror social dynamics.

Central to Sung’s practice is the notion of oikos—the ancient Greek word that symbolises a foundational space of life where relationships coexist. In her work, oikos becomes a site where individual and collective existence intertwine. Her compositions unfold as living ecosystems: dense, shimmering fields where grasses and wildflowers weave narratives of survival, adaptation, and transformation. Each blade speaks of resilience and care, reminding us that life endures through connection.

This resonance is particularly alive in Singapore. Like these naturalised plants, Singapore’s identity has been shaped through migration and exchanges. Its strength lies in diversity, resilience, and adaptability. Sung’s work offers a quiet parallel: the beauty of integration and the unexpected harmony that emerges when disparate lives share the same ground.

Sung’s exhibition, Bouquet For You, invites us into a space of stillness and reflection. Shimmering surfaces and grasses rendered with exquisite precision blur the boundary between reality and dream, urging us to pause, look deeply, and contemplate our place within an interconnected ecological and existential web.

Yao Qingmei: Steel Garden
2025-12-13 12:00 - 2026-02-15 18:00 | ShanghART Singapore, Block 9 Lock Road #02-22, 108937, Singapore
Opening Reception : 13 December 2025, 4pm
Exhibition Period : 13 December 2025 – 15 February 2026
Singapore, November 2025 — ShanghART Gallery is pleased to present Steel Garden, a solo exhibition by Paris-based artist Yao Qingmei, marking her first major presentation with the gallery. Known for an interdisciplinary practice that bridges performance, video, photography, and installation, Yao examines how bodies move through—and are shaped by—structures of power, public ritual, and the choreography of collective life.
At the heart of the exhibition is Steel Garden, her latest two-channel video installation. The work draws from the grand floral displays erected annually during moments of national celebration. Through a series of precise and lingering images—close-ups of flowers, birds foraging among cracks, weeds growing between paving stones, the varied postures of visitors, and the synchronised gesture of crowds during the flag-raising ceremony—Yao reveals the subtle relationships between individual action, collective ritual, and the constructed natural landscape.
This multi-chapter video work begins with news reports on specially cultivated festival flowers and culminates in a floating, dust-like vocal poem from the artist’s own perspective. Drawing upon the concepts of the “moving garden” and the “third landscape” by French gardener Gilles Clément, the work also references descriptions of pain and hallucination experienced by the soldier Pavel Korchagin in the Soviet novel How the Steel Was Tempered (1934) to reveal the biopolitical framework that underlies this monumental ritual.
The exhibition also brings together works spanning more than 10 years, offering a contextual understanding of Yao’s sustained inquiry into symbolic gesture, embodied practice, and moving-image construction. Beginning with early public space interventions and documented performances, Yao initially used video as a means of recording her embodied actions. Over time, she has increasingly turned toward filmic construction, developing a more deliberate cinematic language that positions her both in front of and behind the camera.
This evolution is visible in works such as The Third Internationale in Monaco (2012) and Dance! Dance! Bruce Ling! (2013), in which Yao performs as a protagonist navigating staged situations that parody ideological choreography. In more recent projects, including Prelude to Love (2023), she adopts the role of a director, shaping narrative, movement, and mise-en-scène to investigate how collective identities are formed, reinforced, or unsettled.
Across her body of work, Yao Qingmei articulates a distinctive, incisive voice within contemporary art—one attuned to the shifting dynamics of nationalism, memory, and public space in the twenty-first century. Steel Garden offers a focused yet expansive lens into her practice, foregrounding an artist whose observations of ritual, power, and lived experiences resonate far beyond their point of origin.

A People's Marine Art Assemblage: An Installation
2025-12-13 09:00 - 2025-12-31 18:00 | Singapore Maritime Gallery, 31 Marina Coastal Dr, Level 2, 018988, Singapore
A People’s Marine Art Assemblage is a reflection on Singapore’s relationship between progress, protection and conservation. The large-scale installation features over 800kg of shipyard junk, 300 coral-inspired origami made by the community, and 7 special trash cleaning vessels made by pre-schoolers.
The installation is initiated by contemporary dance company ARTS FISSION and conceptualised by designer/artist Joyce Ng. It draws inspiration from the kueh lapis — a well-loved layer cake familiar to people in Southeast Asia — and begs the question: “Can we have our cake and eat it too?” when it comes to nature conservation.
The installation is the finale in a series of integrative arts and marine science programmes, organised by ARTS FISSION, in collaboration with the marine conservation non-profit Our Blue Spaces, and supported by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).
Opening day programme
The work opens on Saturday, 13 December 2025, and will include a marine conservation talk by Sam Shu Qin and an artist’s talk through words, music, and creative movement. Admission to the opening is free but registration is required at https://apeoplesmarineartassemblage.peatix.com/
Audience
Suitable for general audience: youths, adults, seniors, and families with children ages 4 and above are welcomed!
About the artist
As a non-profit company with IPC charity status and the longest incorporated contemporary dance company in Singapore since 1994, ARTS FISSION has gathered a diverse and ground-breaking dance-making track record. Under the artistic direction of Cultural Medallion Recipient Angela Liong, ARTS FISSION has evolved into a dynamic dance hybrid that is complex in concept, with a multi-disciplinary approach that often references Asian cultures in contemporary context. The dance hybrid approach also applies equal innovation to turn community outreach projects into richly human experiences.
Programme partners
Sam Shu Qin is a marine conservationist dedicated to restoring coral reefs in Southeast Asia. Her work focuses on enhancing biodiversity on artificial structures, rehabilitating degraded reefs in urban marine environments, and collaborating with coastal communities on restoration initiatives. She is also the co-founder of Our Blue Spaces, an initiative that raises awareness of Singapore’s marine biodiversity while fostering community collaboration and engagement in marine science and conservation. Through her expertise in science communication, Sam inspires diverse audiences to take an active role in marine stewardship.
Maritime & Port Authority Singapore (MPA) was established on 2 February 1996 with the mission to develop Singapore as a global hub port and international maritime centre, and to advance and safeguard Singapore’s strategic maritime interests. MPA takes on multiple roles as Singapore’s maritime and port regulator and planner, international maritime centre champion, national maritime representative, and champion of maritime digitalisation and decarbonisation efforts. MPA partners industry, research community and other agencies to enhance safety, security and environmental protection, facilitate maritime and port operations and growth, expand multi-domain capabilities, and support the cluster of maritime services and manpower development.

UNTITLED
2025-12-11 12:00 - 2026-01-10 18:00 | Art Seasons Gallery, 50 Genting Lane, Cideco Industrial Complex #03-02, Singapore, Singapore, 349558, Singapore
UNTITLED at ART SEASONS is an exhibition of artworks from 10 artists. Participating artists: Alya Rahmat. Umibaizurah. Komkrit Tepthian. Min Zaw. Awang Damit Ahmad. Choi Xoo Ang. Desmond Mah. David Chan. Yang Xu. Cheong Kwang Ho.
E-catalog: qrco.de/Untitled

Jochen Mühlenbrink: Untaped Solo Exhibition
2025-11-29 - 2026-01-03 | Cuturi Gallery, 61 Aliwal Street, Singapore 199937, Singapore, 228210, Singapore
Cuturi Gallery is pleased to present Untaped, a new solo exhibition by German painter Jochen Mühlenbrink (b. 1980). Bringing together works developed during his 2025 residency with the gallery, the exhibition marks his return to Singapore following his earlier presentation with the gallery, AIR. In Untaped, Mühlenbrink deepens his ongoing inquiry into illusion, perception, and painterly deception, expanding on his tape series while drawing continued resonance from the atmospheric ambiguity of his Window Paintings.
Across the exhibition, strips of tape, torn, curling at the ends, become the real focus. Tape layered over fogged windows both conceals and transforms what lies beneath, inviting the viewer into a playful investigation. The works are highly technical yet poetic, conceptual, and rooted in the materiality of lived experience. Mühlenbrink’s practice focuses on that brief shift in perception: when what seems familiar reveals itself differently.
Untaped by Jochen Mühlenbrink will be on view at 61 Aliwal Street, Singapore 199937 from 29 November 2025 to 3 January 2026.

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.

Gallery Children’s Biennale 2025: Tomorrow, We’ll Be…
2025-05-31 - 2026-03-29 | National Gallery Singapore, 1 St. Andrew's Road #01-01, Singapore, 178957, Singapore
The family-favourite Gallery Children’s Biennale 2025 is back with multi-sensory and immersive installations where art meets play! As National Gallery Singapore celebrates its 10th anniversary, the fifth edition of the Biennale invites the young and young at heart to dream big, express their creativity, and explore a hopeful and inclusive future shaped by the core values of Joy, Kindness, Love, and Dream.
Through interactive installations by artists from Singapore and Asia, children across ages – even from as young as babies – can express themselves freely and be immersed as active participants!
Highlights include Dance Dance Chromatics by Singaporean artist Wyn-Lyn where a seamless canvas of digital ‘paintings’ are activated via movement; and Japanese artist Hiromi Tango’s series of large-scale colourful flowers with petals carrying words of kindness engraved in Braille.
For more information, please visit: https://www.nationalgallery.sg/sg/en/festivals/gallery-childrens-biennale-2025-tomorrow-well-be.html
