Singapore Art Week 2026: The region's pinnacle visual arts season to experience the best of Southeast Asian art
10 November 2025
Singapore’s premier visual arts season, Singapore Art Week (SAW), ignites the city from 22 to 31 January 2026. Organised by the National Arts Council, Singapore (NAC) and supported by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), SAW 2026 serves as a vital meeting point for the local and international visual arts community.
With opportunities for exchange of ideas and networking between artists, curators and thought leaders, SAW’s growing presence in the region reflects an increasing market potential. Yet, SAW continues to offer accessible and unique art encounters as the island transforms into a canvas for the arts over ten days, with an array of programmes from landmark exhibitions, art fairs to vibrant activations and installations across Singapore.
Tay Tong, Director, Arts Ecosystem Group (Visual Arts), NAC, said, “Each year, SAW expands its reach and depth of offerings as the visual arts community from Southeast Asia and the world converge in Singapore to showcase some of the best works, forge meaningful connections and inspire groundbreaking collaborations. This reinforces SAW’s role as a premier platform in the region and reflects Singapore’s evolving and dynamic visual arts landscape. With over 100 captivating programmes, art enthusiasts and the wider public will get to experience and immerse themselves in the creative energy pulsing through our city. SAW is more than a celebration of art — it is a testament to the transformative power of creativity that connects people, ignites discourse and shapes exciting new possibilities.”
Guo Teyi, Director, Leisure Events, STB, said, “SAW’s growing scale and reach reinforces Singapore’s position as a vibrant destination to discover international and Southeast Asian art. Art collectors, cultural enthusiasts and visitors come not just for the programming, but to also experience Singapore's unique blend of artistic innovation and cosmopolitan lifestyle. Featuring major art fair ART SG, first-in-the-region exhibitions by local and international artists, and public art, SAW offers a diverse range of experiences for visitors of varying degrees of interest in art. We invite all to explore the wide range of arts and lifestyle offerings across Singapore and discover the different facets of our destination during this visual arts season.”
Shining the spotlight on Southeast Asian art
SAW 2026 continues to bring together artists, curators, thought leaders, professionals and art lovers in the region and the world for network building, artistic engagement and discourse. Through this platform, the visual arts community will reach new audiences, highlighting Singapore's role as the gateway for artistic exchange in Southeast Asia.
Among the key international showcases is the exclusive Southeast Asian staging of Wan Hai Hotel: Singapore Strait (translated as “Circumnavigating the Sea”), presented by international art fair ART SG and Shanghai’s Rockbund Art Museum, and curated by X Zhu-Nowell. Exclusively featuring Southeast Asian artists, this unique iteration will transform the lobby of The Warehouse Hotel, a restored heritage property on Robertson Quay into an immersive exhibition space that combines institutional-level curation with a seamless hospitality experience. In this hybrid environment, visitors are drawn into a dynamic world where film and video programmes, site-specific interventions, installations, performances, and artist-led gatherings unfold. Art Outreach presents Digging Stars by Ibrahim Mahama, curated by Clémentine de la Féronnière and Francesca Migliorati, marking the Ghanaian artist’s Southeast Asian debut with new fabric-based works, collages, photographs, and video reflecting on systems of labour, trade, and collective memory.
Major presentations on Southeast Asian art and artists are also part of SAW 2026’s line-up. Isang Dipang Langit: Fragments of Memory, Fields of Now showcases ten contemporary Filipino artists exploring the boundaries between memory, place, and identity, and chapalang co-curated by Gunalan Nadarajan and Roopesh Sitharanexploring the contemporary practices of ten regional artists that intertwine art and technology. Commissioned by NAC, these presentations invite visitors to delve deeper into the diverse practices of Southeast Asian art.
Singapore Biennale 2025: pure intention also continues into SAW 2026, inviting audiences to see Singapore in a new light as local, regional and international contemporary artists present critical artworks that dialogue with the city’s urban fabric — from pre-colonial and colonial landmarks to shopping malls, historic housing estates and greenspaces. The Biennale showcases the vigour of artistic practices and encourages visitors to reflect on our rapid urban development, and speculative futures.
Exploring new frontiers with art and technology
In the realm of art and technology, local, regional and international artists push boundaries of art-making and immersive art experiences. SAW Open Call project Ground Loops presented by Feelers in collaboration with the School for Poetic Computations — a New York-based alternative school exploring art, code, hardware, and critical theory — brings together an eclectic mix of Singapore and New York-based new media artists exploring technology as a tool for art-making. Reworlding, curated by Debbie Ding, investigates the history of virtual reality through the eyes of female contemporary artists from Asia, creating new worlds that foster dialogue around gender, memory, and power in digital space.
The 6th VH AWARD by Hyundai Motor Group returns to SAW for its second Singapore edition, with five commissioned artworks by emerging media artists, selected for their experimental and transcultural approaches. Visitors will soon have the opportunity to experience the new IMBA Theatre at Gardens by the Bay. IMBA will present David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not Smaller and Further Away) in partnership with Lightroom, alongside Botero in Singapore. These immersive exhibitions provide cutting-edge experiences that seamlessly blend art with technology. The former is a production by Lightroom, crafted in collaboration with the celebrated and iconic artist David Hockney, and spans six decades of his work. In contrast, the Botero exhibition is jointly presented with the Fernando Botero Foundation, featuring a multi-format display including the largest exhibition with paintings and sculptures from the family’s collection, the world’s first Botero immersive experience, and monumental sculptures displayed throughout the garden, exclusive to Southeast Asia.
Beyond these presentations, this year’s SAW also includes an "Arts and Tech" focus to foster thought leadership in an emerging sector within Singapore's visual arts landscape. This includes a panel discussion with international speakers such as Sabine Himmelsbach, Director of HEK (House of Electronic Arts) in Basel and Victoria Ivanova, R&D Strategic Lead at the Serpentine Galleries in London as well as networking opportunities at Artspace @ Helutrans.
Reinforcing SAW’s regional and international presence
SAW brings together local and international artists, institutions, galleries and audiences, fostering a connected and evolving visual arts ecosystem that further anchors Singapore’s role in the region.
As part of this ecosystem, international platforms such as ART SG and S.E.A. Focus have become key touchpoints for artists, collectors, and gallerists at SAW. ART SG plays a central role in convening the international art world in Asia, extending Singapore's position as an arts hub the region. This year, S.E.A. Focus joins the leading art fair for the first time within the Sands Expo and Convention Centre. With John Tung remaining at the helm as curator, S.E.A. Focus will continue bringing its distinct curatorial lens on Southeast Asia for the upcoming edition. This collaboration is a powerful convergence of global and regional perspectives — offering visitors a single-ticket, seamless journey through both international presentations and the most exciting voices from Southeast Asia.
Commercial galleries and not-for-profit organisations based in Singapore will also present exhibitions and collector shows, offering an insider’s look into the rigour and diversity of private collections and art-buying in Singapore. Highlights include Human Being Human at The Private Museum featuring selections from the collectors John Chia and Cheryl Loh that examine the human condition through contemporary art. Tanoto Art Foundation will present a group exhibition featuring 23 international artists whose practices centre presence, tactile attention, and the rhythms of the body, while Gajah Gallery’s milestone 30 Years of Gajah: A Retrospective celebrates three decades of artistic exchange in Southeast Asia.
Beyond showcases and presentations, SAW Forum 2026, themed FORCE•FIELDS, invites thought leaders of the visual arts community to engage critically with contemporary artistic practice and discourse. Organised by NAC, National Gallery Singapore (the Gallery) and Singapore Art Museum (SAM), the upcoming edition features three keynote sessions by leading international voices including British art historian Claire Bishop and Brazilian curator Adriano Pedrosa who examine how individuals navigate and influence complex systems that, in turn, shape contemporary art and society.
Arts organisations will also be hosting their own symposiums, such as STPI Creative Workshop and Gallery’s The Print Show Singapore andSymposium: The Politics of Print, and Art Outreach Basecamp 2026, contributing to the overall growing thought leadership presence at SAW. Withers KhattarWong LLP will be holding an intimate forum about building family legacies through art.
Diverse and accessible experiences for all across the island
Visitors from all walks of life will be able to enjoy and engage in a range of art experiences from well-loved favourites to exciting new programmes.
Light to Night Singapore 2026 marks the Gallery’s 10th edition of the festival and will be extended across 4 vibrant weekends for the first time from 9-31 Jan 2025. With the theme “The Power in Us”, it explores the profound connections forged when people and communities unite through art to reflect, converse, and create. Audiences are invited to shape experiences in fresh, unexpected ways with interactive art installations, crowd-favourite façade projections, and novel programmes and performances. The festivities complement National Gallery Singapore’s ongoing major exhibitions, including Fear No Power: Women Imagining Otherwise, which connects the practices of five remarkable Southeast Asian women artists, and Into the Modern: Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the largest French Impressionist exhibition ever seen in Southeast Asia.
Tanjong Pagar Distripark will host the debut of Sonic Shaman, Taiwan’s first interdisciplinary sound festival, complete with experimental music performances, sound art installations and art lectures with international artists from the region's experimental music community. Gillman Barracks will be transformed into a creative playground with The Last Tree Was a Building, large-scale inflatable monkey sculptures by ANTZ complementing the diverse exhibitions presented by its resident art galleries.
Marina Bay Sands' Where Art Takes Shape will return for its fourth edition with culinary experiences across the property and two exhibitions at ArtScience Museum — a solo showcase by Lawrence Lek, one of the world’s leading contemporary artists, whose works probe the relationship between humans and the machines we create; and a photography exhibition by award-winning British artist Levon Biss which showcases high-magnification portraits of insects from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. At its heart, Where Art Takes Shape brings together the worlds of art, food and culture through seamless experiences that unite people of all ages through the universal language of art.
Art activations will take place on people’s daily commute withNext Stop: Together! by SAW and ART:DIS (Arts & Disability) Singapore featuring artists with disabilities and contemporary practitioners. This initiative extends NAC's ongoing partnership with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) that include presentations at eight MRT stations and a themed train. SAW is also partnering SMRT and ART:DIS for the first time to introduce an interactive Art Bus, transforming the city and heartlands into lively hubs of creative exchange through tactile artworks and participatory activities.
In addition, OH! Open House presents their 12th art walk, OH! Moonstone: Everything Changes, Everything Stays the Same, a walking tour that takes place in and around a decommissioned factory and features four site-specific artworks across the Moonstone Lane Estate. Self-guided trails, including the Public Art Trust's new routes, will also invite audiences to rediscover Singapore's cultural landscape through art in public spaces. In partnership with Gardens by the Bay and Marina Bay Sands, STB will also be introducing Art in the City, a new programme during SAW that seeks to profile everyday art through trails that will start with the Civic District and Marina Bay, inviting locals and tourists to discover and engage with Singapore’s vibrant public artworks.
More information on SAW 2026 programmes highlights can be found in the Annex, with further details on the full line-up revealed closer to date. In addition, SG Culture Pass can be used to enjoy some of the ticketed SAW programmes such as SAW Forum, ART SG and S.E.A. Focus. The digital media kit can be accessed here (opens in new tab). For the latest updates, visit https://www.artweek.sg.sg/ (opens in new tab) and follow @sgartweek on Facebook (opens in new tab) and Instagram (opens in new tab).
For media enquiries, kindly contact:
Gabrielle Lee | Faith Leong |
About Singapore Art Week
As Singapore’s pinnacle visual arts season, Singapore Art Week (SAW) represents the vibrant and diverse visual arts ecosystem.
The ten-day event will see more than 100 events by the local and international visual arts community. Audiences can look forward to a dynamic line-up of programmes and arts experiences at our museums, galleries, independent art spaces and public spaces, and participate in enriching discussions, talks, walks and tours across the island and online.
SAW, a celebration of Singapore’s visual arts landscape, is an annual event organised by the National Arts Council.
About the National Arts Council, Singapore
The National Arts Council champions the arts in Singapore and is committed to nurturing a vibrant and sustainable arts scene that enriches the lives of Singaporeans. Our distinctive arts sector fosters artistic excellence, inspires society, sparks creativity, and connects Singapore with the world. Through our collaborative efforts with individuals, private and public sectors, we aim to cultivate a creative city that inspires, while anchored on a thriving, inclusive and diverse arts scene. For more information on the Council’s mission and plans, visit NAC site.
ANNEX
*all information is accurate at time of print
SAW 2026 Programme Highlights
Details
Programme | Description |
|---|---|
SAW Programmes | |
30 Years of Gajah: A Retrospective | In 2026, Gajah marks three decades as a living archive of artistic exchange and critical imagination in Southeast Asia. Since its founding, the gallery has remained a porous space for dialogue and discovery where creative and critical practices continually intersect. |
Art Outreach Basecamp 2026 | Art Outreach Basecamp is a public symposium held alongside the Art Outreach Summit, positioning Singapore as a hub for global voices in art, history, and society. Basecamp 2026 will open with a performance lecture by internationally acclaimed artist Ibrahim Mahama, blending storytelling, archival imagery, and reflections on trade, labour, and memory. This is followed by a panel discussion with international Summit faculty, weaving together perspectives from Africa, Asia, and beyond. |
ART SG | Returning for its fourth edition, ART SG will take place from 23 to 25 January 2026 (VIP Preview and Vernissage 22 January). Presented by Founding and Lead Partner UBS, Southeast Asia’s global contemporary art fair showcases a selection of renowned international and regional galleries across three distinct sectors, alongside a curated program of large-scale installations, film, panel discussions, performance art, and more. |
S.E.A. Focus 2026 | S.E.A. Focus is a curated Southeast Asian contemporary art platform showcasing the finest of contemporary art from the region, offering a unique opportunity to explore the vibrant talent of Southeast Asia. For the first time, this event will be co-located with ART SG. |
chapalang | “chapalang” is a random and seemingly chaotic commingling of things haphazardly put together, and in this exhibition exemplifies cultural strategies and attitudes associated with 'making do’; making one’s own the heterogeneity of technologies and things we inhabit. These creative reconfigurations and vernacular appropriations of technologies in Southeast Asia are gathered here to speculate on the radical potential of such cultural practices to unsettle and reimagine our relationship to the ‘technological’. |
David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) and Botero in Singapore | David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) at IMBA, Gardens by the Bay invites you to experience the world through Hockney’s eyes, in an audiovisual show narrated by the artist himself. A Lightroom production created in close collaboration with David Hockney, the show spans six decades of the iconic British artist’s work, revealing how he experiments with perspective, photography, and painting to celebrate the joy of seeing and creating. |
Fear No Power: Women Imagining Otherwise | Discover the power of art through the perspectives of five remarkable Southeast Asian women artists through Fear No Power: Women Imagining Otherwise. Featuring over 50 works spanning painting, sculpture, photography, performance and archival materials from the 1960s to 2010s, this is National Gallery Singapore's first major exhibition connecting and comparing the practices of women artists in the region and tells a larger story of women's empowerment in Southeast Asia. |
Human Being Human: Selections from the Collection of John Chia and Cheryl Loh | This exhibition, curated from the private collection of John Chia and Cheryl Loh, embarks on a critical examination of the human condition. The title, ‘Human Being Human’, draws inspiration from Keith Haring's iconic "Radiant Baby," serving as a conceptual framework to explore the inherent potential for purity and goodness. |
Isang Dipang Langit: Fragments of Memory, Fields of Now | Featuring ten established Filipino artists, with new works by Elaine Navas, Manuel Ocampo and Dominic Mangila — the exhibition reimagines Amado V. Hernandez’s “sliver of sky” as a metaphor for hope, memory, and identity. Through painting, sculpture, and performance, fragments of the past illuminate living fields of the present, traversing individual recollections and shared histories. |
Into the Modern: Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston | Explore the revolutionary world of Impressionism through iconic works by Pierre-August Renoir, Claude Monet, Édouard Manet, Paul Cézanne, and Edgar Degas, never before exhibited in Singapore. |
Light to Night 2026: The Power in Us | Anchored in the theme The Power in Us, Light to Night Singapore 2026 shines a spotlight on the strength of community, the richness of diverse perspectives, and the connections forged when people gather to experience and co-create art. Through a dynamic line-up of large-scale installations, projection mappings, and participatory programmes, the festival invites audiences to explore three curatorial pillars: Memory and Modernity in Dialogue, which negotiates pasts and presents; Crafting Unity from Duality, which reflects the synthesis of opposites; and From Spectator to Co-creator, which celebrates participatory and socially engaged art. |
Next Stop: Together! | Next Stop: Together! is a landmark commissioning project for Singapore Art Week 2026, presented in partnership with the National Arts Council (NAC), LTA, SMRT and ART:DIS. The initiative activates Singapore’s transport system as an artistic platform, combining a mobile Art Bus with large-scale MRT station commissions to engage audiences across the island. |
OH! Moonstone | The 12th edition of OH!’s flagship art walks, OH! Moonstone, explores the theme “Everything Changes, Everything Stays the Same”, and takes place in and around a decommissioned factory. Join us on a walking tour featuring four site-specific artworks across the Moonstone Lane Estate — a neighbourhood that has transformed over the years from plantations, kampungs, bottling plants, and shrines to the residential precinct it is today. |
SAW Forum 2026: FORCE·FIELDS | Themed FORCE·FIELDS, the SAW 2026 Forum looks to examine how individuals navigate and influence the complex systems that shape contemporary art and society. The forum will explore three key areas: (i) personal agency within larger structures, (ii) the systemic forces governing contemporary art, and (iii) emerging trends that could reshape our future. |
Singapore Biennale 2025: pure intention | Singapore Biennale 2025: pure intention presents contemporary art in multiple venues and public spaces, inviting audiences of all walks of life to experience Singapore’s many layers built by all of those who have been a part of its history, collectively creating a city that is as planned as it is full of discovery, surprises and interesting juxtapositions. |
Sonic Shaman at Tanjong Pagar Distripark | Presented in Singapore for the first time, Sonic Shaman unites experimental sound, performance and contemporary art, bringing together local and global artists, musicians and thinkers. As a trans-disciplinary "music festival," it offers a space where diverse practices and traditions converge in a collective experience of listening and imagination. This edition's theme, “Borderless,” embraces the experience of sound and artistic experimentation that transcends geographical, physical, cultural and temporal borders. |
Tanoto Art Foundation Inaugural Exhibition | Tanoto Art Foundation (TAF) will stage its first major exhibition, opening on 21 January 2026 during Singapore Art Week. On view through 1 March 2026, the exhibition will explore artistic practices that center presence, tactile attention, and the rhythms of the body. Curated by Xiaoyu Weng, TAF Artistic Director, the exhibition will bring together pieces from the Tanoto Family Collection, as well as loaned and newly commissioned artworks. Over twenty artists will be in dialogue, including Trisha Baga, Lotus L. Kang, Suki Seokyeong Kang, Tarik Kiswanson, Heidi Lau, Yin Xiuzhen, and Anicka Yi, among others. |
The 6th VH AWARD | Initiated in 2016, the VH AWARD has been discovering and cultivating emerging media artists who engage with the context of Asia through an online residency program and exhibitions of commissioned works across various global platforms. For SAW 2026, the 6th VH AWARD presents five commissioned artworks by the finalists who explore the complexities of contemporary society, triggering new perspectives on history, mythology, identity, and technology |
The Print Show Singapore and Symposium: The Politics of Print | STPI is collaborating with leading print publishers and galleries around the world to explore the practices of celebrated contemporary artists, where print is an important element of their process, at a time where there is growing resurgence in this age-old medium. Including seminal artists from Asian print histories and beyond, The Print Show Singapore offers collectors a rare opportunity to discover and acquire groundbreaking works. |
The Last Tree Was a Building | The Last Tree Was a Building by Singaporean artist ANTZ activates Gillman Barracks with four large inflatable monkey sculptures placed on rooftops and elevated sites across the precinct. Drawing from his long-running Urban Monkeys series, these playful yet contemplative figures act as quiet sentinels, inviting visitors to look up and reflect on the layered histories, shifting ecologies, and imagined futures of the urban landscape during Singapore Art Week 2026. |
Wan Hai Hotel: Singapore Strait | Wan Hai Hotel: Singapore Strait transforms The Warehouse Hotel into a functioning exhibition site where contemporary art lives alongside guests, staff, and daily activity. |
Building family legacies through art | Art collecting goes beyond financial investment – it is a way to create a lasting family legacy that tells a story and inspires future generations. It also helps to preserve family cultural identity, document social issues that matter to them, and support emerging artists or champion specific art movements. At this event, we will hear from art collectors, international legal advisors and institutions on the considerations of creating a legacy through art. |
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SAW Open Call Projects | |
Auditoria | What happens when sound drifts across senses, becoming something felt, seen, or imagined? Auditoria is a multi-sensory exhibition and performance series exploring the phenomenal, perceptual, and social dimensions of sound. This project delves into the aesthetics of sonic experience—how sound occupies space, lingers in memory, and impacts both individual and collective consciousness. It draws attention to the often-overlooked sonic dimensions of our world—ephemeral tones, environmental ambiences, inaudible frequencies, and internal auditory phenomena. Through gallery installations, outdoor interventions, workshops and discursive programs, Auditoria invites visitors to engage with sound not merely as an auditory experience but as a complex material with physical properties, social implications, and perceptual dimensions that extend far beyond hearing alone. |
Bring Your Own Racket (BYOR) | Bring Your Own Racket (BYOR) transforms a familiar badminton net into a sculptural stage for play and encounter. Set within the heart of Singapore’s Central Business District, the public interactive installation invites people to bring their rackets, move through its shifting heights, or simply linger. By reimagining a common game as an artistic and social gesture, BYOR sparks moments of spontaneity, connection, and joy amid the city’s everyday rhythm. |
Digging Stars by Ibrahim Mahama, curated by Clémentine de la Féronnière and Francesca Migliorati | The fourth edition of The Pierre Lorinet Collection features Ibrahim Mahama’s first solo exhibition in Singapore, presenting new fabric works, collages, photographs, and video. Known for transforming jute sacks and discarded materials into living archives, Mahama repositions them as charged sites of memory and exchange. The exhibition examines the legacies of colonialism, migration, and global capitalism while reimagining how materials and spaces bear witness to hidden histories. |
Exposure_ | Exposure_Exposure unfolds as a constellation of public works by five local artists, co-curated by Daniel Chong and Dylan Chan. Occupying the outdoor margins of Objectifs Centre for Photography, these encounters are placed within eyeshot of the busy intersection of Middle Road and Waterloo Street. Exposure_Exposure hopes to hijack, interrupt and reframe the everyday encounter. What may seem a light serendipitous encounter, unravel into layers of friction through form. Together, they shape a field of meetings, offering new ways of sensing and encounter. |
The Strange Archive | The Strange Archive presents speculative artworks that reimagine the archive as a living, contested space rather than a static repository. “To make strange is to see again”: here, the archive signals a site of care, continuity, and labour that remains porous and reflexive, shaped by omission and desire. This first iteration, developed for Singapore Art Week 2026 at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, lays the groundwork for a long-term curatorial and research platform exploring how forgotten stories, unrealised projects, and obscured memories may be reactivated through exhibition making. |
Ground Loops | In collaboration with the School for Poetic Computation (SFPC), a New York-based alternative school exploring art, code, hardware, and critical theory, Feelers co-presents Poetic Computations, a group exhibition and an alternate-education programme. |
Reworlding | Reworlding is an exhibition of new works by contemporary artists from Asia curated by Debbie Ding. Each artist responds to early virtual reality works from the early 1990s to early 2000s, revisiting a moment and digital space filled with utopian promise. Reviving the experimental ethos of that era, Reworlding is an invitation to imagine virtual space through artistic perspectives, where virtuality is not an escapist fantasy but a tool for rewriting histories, disrupting dominant narratives and constructing alternative futures. |
Three Acts of the Sun | Three Acts of the Sun opens a portal into speculative climate futures, charting a significant chapter of Kent Chan’s body of work. The exhibition features the new commission Weather Casting, alongside recent works where the artist’s tropical imaginaries intersect with global warming. Set in a future global tropic, the artworks envision tropicalisation, climate migrations, and geoengineering interventions, framing climate change through the lens of lived human experience. |