We’re revving up once again for Singapore Art Week (SAW), which will turn the city into a bustling hive of activity from 22–31 January this year. While there are over 100 enticing exhibitions, installations, and events to discover, here’s our list of seven ways to have a memorable Art Week, whether you’re an art-loving local or a traveller setting foot in Singapore for the first time.

1. Check out fresh programmes and partnerships at ART SG

 

At the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, the fourth edition of ART SG (23–25 January) will feature the fair’s usual roster of galleries and large-scale installations while also debuting new specially curated programmes. Notably, the boutique art fair S.E.A. Focus — first launched in 2019 and often lauded for its sensitive curation of Southeast Asian contemporary art — will present at ART SG for the first time, allowing visitors to enter both fairs under a single ticket. 

Also for the first time, ART SG will include sectors dedicated to film and performance art. Presented in collaboration with Shanghai’s Rockbund Art Museum (RAM), these sectors will be helmed by RAM Executive Director and Chief Curator X Zhu-Nowell, shining a spotlight on more transient, time-based art forms at the fair.

As part of the fair’s Performance Art sector, visitors can receive traditional Chinese astrology readings from Singaporean artist John Clang and listen to an experimental sound performance by Brian Fuata and Daniel Jenatsch, mixed in real time. In keeping with the focus on performance, fair partner UBS will also present video documentation of Indonesian artist Melati Suryodarmo’s emotive 2007 performance I Love You at its UBS Art Studio. 

On the “growing global collector interest” in performance art, ART SG Fair Director Shuyin Yang explains, “While performance art can be more complex to collect than traditional mediums, today’s collectors are increasingly open to conceptual and experiential works, primarily when supported by strong documentation and institutional backing.”

Another new programme this year is the TVS Initiative for Indian and South Asian Art, a specialised regional platform responding to both the blossoming community of Indian collectors in Singapore as well as a broader Southeast Asian interest in art from the subcontinent. Featured artists from both South Asia and its diasporas will include young artists like Ayesha Singh and Zaam Arif as well as established names like Surendran Nair and Jitish Kallat.

Identifying commonalities between South and Southeast Asia — both areas where diverse cultures meet — curator Srinivas Aditya Mopidevi emphasises the importance of facilitating dialogue between the two. “We need to see the [TVS Initiative] as a seed to the long-term revival of conversations between South Asia and Southeast Asia … I would like the audience visiting ART SG this year to leave with the idea that art from South Asia offers a vast scope of imagination and is something that deserves consistent engagement.”

Lastly, the fair will also venture outside the halls of Marina Bay Sands with Wan Hai Hotel: Singapore Strait (20–31 January), a contemporary art exhibition exploring life amidst oceans, islands, and waterways. Also curated by X Zhu-Nowell, this Southeast Asian adaptation of the Rockbund’s 2024 Wan Hai Hotel exhibition takes place in the historic Warehouse Hotel along the Singapore River. Even as the hotel’s usual operations continue, installations, films, performances, and public programmes will transform and activate its public spaces. 

ART SG runs from 23–25 January at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre. Visit artsg.com to get tickets and find out more. 

2. Discover new sides of Singapore with the Singapore Biennale

 

This year, SAW will overlap with the 8th edition of the Singapore Biennale, making it an ideal opportunity for international visitors to enjoy both experiences. Running till 29 March, the Biennale will transport art outside museum walls into Singapore’s public spaces, from the rustic Tanglin Halt neighbourhood to the lush, secluded Wessex Estate. Well-reviewed artworks in Orchard Road’s old strata malls invite visitors to sing along to karaoke videos created by Filipino domestic workers or explore a 2000s “internet cafe,” introducing them to a side of Singapore just off the beaten track.

But travellers who are short on time need not worry, as the Biennale also extends to central cultural sites like the Civic District. Curators Duncan Bass, Hsu Fang-Tze, Ong Puay Khim, and Selene Yap suggest interspersing viewings of Biennale artworks with other SAW events — for instance, checking out works at the Singapore Art Museum at Tanjong Pagar Distripark before bopping along to the experimental Taiwanese sound festival Sonic Shaman (23–25 January) at the same location. The “immersive, participatory, and site-responsive works” as well as the “varied perspectives” offered by the Biennale mean that it’s “the perfect through line to explore Singapore’s artistic spirit during SAW 2026.”

The Singapore Biennale runs till 29 March at various sites across the island. Visit singaporebiennale.org to find out more. 

3. Enjoy blockbuster exhibitions at the National Gallery Singapore

 

As usual, the National Gallery Singapore will be a key lodestone of activity throughout SAW, boasting two temporary special exhibitions and a recent revamp of its permanent galleries. 

Newly launched on 9 January, Fear No Power: Women Imagining Otherwise will mark the Gallery’s first all-female show. Featuring five major Southeast Asian artists — including Indonesia’s Dolorosa Sinaga, the Philippines’ Imelda Cajipe Endaya, and Singapore’s Amanda Heng — the exhibition comprises over 50 artworks across a diversity of mediums, dating from the 1960s to the 2010s.

Highlight artworks include a spectacular new mural commission by Thai artist Phaptawan Suwannakudt and the 2003 work Home Service, a four-month-long project in which Heng — along with fellow artists Twardzik Ching Chor Leng and Vincent Twardzik Ching — ran a home cleaning agency while facilitating conversations about gendered labour and inequality.

Noting how the exhibition explores important topics such as artistic community and the structural barriers faced by women artists, curators Joleen Loh and Qinyi Lim jointly state: “In a calendar as expansive as SAW, the exhibition offers a clear, compelling entry point into Southeast Asia’s modern and contemporary art, foregrounding voices and histories that are seldom placed at the centre.” 

The show is a must-see one not just for art lovers, but for anyone interested in the still-unfolding story of female empowerment in Southeast Asia.

Impressionist exhibition Into the Modern, created in partnership with Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, has been drawing crowds since its opening in November 2025. Across seven sections, viewers can encounter over 100 works by luminaries such as Claude Monet and Pierre-August Renoir, depicting everything from the romance of forests and seascapes to the whirlwind of upper-class Parisian life. 

Those who have not visited Singapore in some time will want to stop by the newly revamped DBS Singapore Gallery, which since July 2025 has been home to the long-term exhibition Singapore Stories: Pathways and Detours in Art. A decade after the Gallery’s launch, Singapore Stories replaces the previous exhibition Siapa Nama Kamu? Art in Singapore since the 19th Century, expanding the story of Singapore art with new attention paid to cinema, graphic design, and other forms of visual and popular culture. 

Lastly, the much-beloved Light to Night festival returns for its 10th edition, turning the Gallery into a nighttime playground through projection mapping artworks, installations, programmes, and performances from January 9–31. 

Find out more about the Gallery’s latest exhibitions and events at nationalgallery.sg. 

4. Investigate a thriving medium with STPI’s first Print Show & Symposium Singapore

 

While one-off works like paintings or sculptures have historically been the darlings of the fine art world, prints and other editioned artworks — whose dazzling aesthetic possibilities and wide range of price points attract new and seasoned collectors alike — are also getting their time in the sun. This Art Week, STPI will celebrate the print medium with the inaugural Print Show & Symposium Singapore from 22–31 January.

Leading print publishers and galleries from the United States, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and beyond will participate in The Print Show at STPI. This small-scale but power-packed presentation will feature over 27 contemporary artists, including art-world superstars like David Hockney, Louise Bourgeois, and Yayoi Kusama as well as local stalwarts like Chng Seok Tin and Kim Lim. 

At the nearby venue 72-13, STPI will also present The Politics of Print, a two-day symposium taking place from 23–24 January, in which 25 curators, museum directors, artists, and other thinkers will come together to discuss the place of print in contemporary art. 

A key highlight will be Cem A.’s Crit Club, a debate-based performance project by the enigmatic artist behind viral art meme account @freeze_magazine. In this edition, Cem A. will bring together voices from a variety of disciplines to debate two topics — the value of NFTs, and whether all memes are political — while making them switch sides halfway through. 

With topics ranging from print’s ties with radical politics to the latest forces driving the art market, The Politics of Print — along with The Print Show — promises to be an engaging addition to the Art Week calendar of serious art lovers. 

The Print Show runs from 22–31 January at STPI, while the Symposium takes place from 23–24 January at 72-13. Visit stpi.com.sg to get Symposium tickets and learn more. 

5. See how art can be for all with Next Stop: Together!

 

Art will travel across the island with Next Stop: Together! (22–31 January), transforming our public transport system into an arterial showcase of work by both notable contemporary names and young artists with disabilities. Co-presented by the National Arts Council (NAC), Land Transport Authority (LTA), SMRT Corporation, and arts nonprofit ART:DIS, the initiative encompasses eight MRT stations and seven mobile “Art Buses” which will whizz through 25 stops across Singapore. 

Across eight busy MRT stations (Raffles Place, Harbourfront, Tampines, Bugis, Newton, Dhoby Ghaut, Outram Park, and Little India), 13 artists will debut new large-scale commissions. Among these artists is last year’s UOL x ART:DIS Art Prize Grand Prize winner Christian Tan, whose work Bench of Seats at the HarbourFront MRT station celebrates familiar bench structures through linocut prints in bright primary colours.

Acclaimed Thai artist Mit Jai Inn and emerging local artist Joel Keong will collaboratively present Becalm the Typhoon, a roiling, monumental abstract composition which will inject a colourful element of surprise into the Newton MRT station. 

Both the MRT commissions and the Art Bus artworks explore ideas of movement, which relate to the act of commuting as well as the lived experiences of people with disabilities. Incorporating touch, movement, and sound into interactive artworks and participatory programmes, the Art Buses will expand art beyond the visual realm, creating inclusive experiences that are suitable for all ages.

From 22–31 January, visitors to the Art Buses’ various stops will be able to play with Hong Shu Ying’s sound-based works, take photos in Isabelle Lim’s black-and-white portrait studio, view wire-sculptures by Victor Tan, and much more. ART:DIS Executive Director Angela Tan states, “Together, [the commissions] create an environment that engages multiple senses … This approach underscores the accessible nature of the project: whether through touch, sight, or gesture, there is something for everyone to experience, including individuals with disabilities.”

Next Stop: Together! runs from 22–31 January at various locations. Visit artdis.org.sg to find out more. 

6. Listen carefully at Auditoria

 

If you’re an active participant in the Singapore visual art scene, you probably consider yourself a practiced viewer of art and exhibitions — but what about being a listener? 

Conceptualised by artists Louis Quek and Esther Goh, Auditoria at 42 Waterloo Street is a multidisciplinary exhibition focused on the medium of sound. Running from 22–31 January, the exhibition brings together new commissions by eight Asian artists, considering how our bodies experience sound and how those experiences are shaped by our environments, memories, and cultural contexts. 

Quek, who considers sound central to his personal artistic practice, explains that the historic bungalow at 42 Waterloo Street is an ideal location for a sound art exhibition because it encompasses spaces of different scales, including both indoor and outdoor environments. These variations mean that sound behaves and travels differently in each area of the show. 

The show will be further complemented by public programmes: a sound art lecture, a hands-on electronics workshop, soundwalks, and live performances. “Across the exhibition,” Quek says, “sound becomes a way to think more deeply about how we experience the world through its textures, rhythms, and vibrations, as well as through the memories, associations, and collective meanings it carries.”

Auditoria runs at 42 Waterloo Street from 22–31 January 2026. Follow @auditoria.sg on Instagram for updates. 

7. Try badminton like you’ve never played it before at Bring Your Own Racket (BYOR)

 

Get some exercise and fresh air at Bring Your Own Racket (BYOR), a monthlong public art installation by spatial designer Aaron Lim and artist-educator Quek Jia Qi. Inspired by a long lineage of artists who have staged playful, participatory artworks in everyday urban environments — particularly Spain’s Jasmina Llobet and Luis Fernandez Pon, whose bizarre six-net “multibasket” creates the conditions for an entirely new kind of basketball game — Lim and Quek are building a 46-metre-long badminton net in the business district, inviting audiences to bring their own implements and make up their own rules for Singapore’s most avant-garde badminton game. 

With courts dotted ubiquitously across Singapore’s public housing estates, most Singaporeans will have played badminton with family members and friends of different generations and skill levels — making the sport the perfect candidate for Quek and Lim’s larger-than-life, ordinary-meets-strange experiment. The two went through many iterations of their design, drawing on common elements of the urban environment like steel mesh and orange traffic cones. The result is a structure perched tantalisingly between the mundane and absurd: “We wanted the form to be familiar enough to recognise at a glance, but shifted enough to make you look twice.”

The installation invites audiences to not only bring their own rackets (or any other tools they think might work), but also to dream up their own rules, imaginatively negotiating with fellow players to create never-before-seen styles of play. On the afternoons of 24 and 31 January, Quek and Lim will be on-site, interacting with visitors to try out new rule sets and record these experiments in an ever-evolving BYOR playbook. 

“Through BYOR,” they express, “we hope to open the door for more people to encounter, question, appreciate, and enjoy visual art in everyday contexts, allowing the work to also become a conversation starter about the role of art in public space and civic life.”

BYOR is on view at the Discover Tanjong Pagar Community Green from 20 January – 20 February 2026. Visit bringyourownracket.weebly.com to find out more and follow @bring_your_own_racket on Instagram for updates. 

___________________________________

Singapore Art Week (SAW) runs from 22–31 January 2026. Discover over 100 exhibitions, installations, and programmes at artweek.sg. 

Header image courtesy of ART SG. Plural Art Mag is a media partner of ART SG. 

This article is produced in paid partnership with the National Arts Council. Thank you for supporting the institutions that support Plural.