Now firmly established as a meeting point between the regional and international artworlds, Singapore Art Week (SAW) returns for its 14th edition this January. Organised by the National Arts Council (NAC) and supported by the Singapore Tourism Board, the initiative features exhibitions, summits and talks programmes with two international art fairs, and marks a unique coming together of makers, thinkers, curators and collectors that is unrivalled in Southeast Asia. The end result is a broad portfolio of events and experiences that offers both professionals and the public at large an opportunity to speculate about the art of the future as much as it does to reflect on the art of the present. A perfect platform from which to view the year in art that lies ahead. As Tay Tong, Director, Art Ecosystem Group (Visual Arts) at NAC puts it: “The visual arts community from Southeast Asia and the world converges in Singapore to showcase some of the best works, forge meaningful connections and inspire groundbreaking collaborations. With over 100 captivating programmes, 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.”
The potentials of art form a core component of the SAW Forum 2026: FORCE•FIELDS, which will include a a conversation between Singapore artist Amanda Heng, who will represent Singapore at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2026, in conversation with Singapore filmmaker Tan Pin Pin, and keynote presentations by US-based art historian Claire Bishop, a theorist of participatory art and the contemporary more generally; and by Adriano Pedrosa, artistic director of the last Venice Biennale and of the São Paulo Museum of Art (whose unique display system, designed by architect Lina Bo Bardi, played a key role in National Gallery Singapore’s travelling Tropical exhibition). Diana Campbell, who recently directed Bukhara’s first biennial, a key example of how art can contribute to placemaking, will be the rapporteur.
In a mark of its growing global reach, SAW also sees the Southeast Asian debut of one of the world’s leading artists, Ibrahim Mahama. The exhibition Digging Stars is curated by Clémentine de la Féronnière and Francesca Migliorati, and includes the full range of the Ghanaian’s output, from his signature fabric works (which are often draped within and over buildings to give them an entirely new narrative framework), to collages, photographs and videos, all of which, appropriately given Singapore’s port-city heritage, tackle global systems of labour, trade and collective memory. Extending SAW’s remit as a place for discussion as well as looking, Mahama will take part in Art Outreach’s summit, Basecamp 2026, where he will present a performance lecture alongside a panel discussion featuring Alessio Antoniolli (Director, Triangle Network London), Antonia Scintilla (Director, Fondation Pernod Ricard), and Dr Zoé Whitley (independent curator and writer) that will return proceedings to the subject of art and placemaking.
Of course placemaking is a matter of deeds as well as words, and accordingly, X Zhu-Nowell, Executive Director and Chief Curator of Shanghai’s Rockbund Art Museum (RAM), comes into town to launch Wan Hai Hotel: Singapore Strait, which sees RAM, in collaboration with Art SG, transform a heritage property on Robertson Quay into an immersive experience featuring leading artists from Southeast Asia and its diasporas, including Martha Atienza, Stephanie Comilang, Taloi Havini and Ho Tzu Nyen. Film, video and installations will be accompanied by a sampling of Singapore’s famed hospitality to create a dynamic environment that’s set up for those who want to meet, chat and linger, as well as those who simply want to watch.
If you want to see placemaking in action, then look out for the latest edition of Singapore’s biennial offering, titled pure intention, which takes place at the Singapore Art Museum and activates various sites throughout the city-state (look out for Sri Lankan collective The Packet’s uncanny recreation of a mid-2000s internet café in the Far East Shopping Centre, the computers of which house a mini-exhibition of other people’s video art). From shopping malls to housing blocks, museums to former schools and heritage sites, the biennial offers a unique opportunity to experience the ways in which art can make you look at aspects of the city that are often overlooked and see a place you think you know anew. If you’re lucky you might even do that while seated upon one of artist Gala Porras-Kim’s plastic picnic-mats, covered in poems by migrant workers, which are hidden among those regularly on sale in Peninsula Plaza.
Singapore is, of course, a hub for artistic production throughout Southeast Asia, and there are plenty of exhibitions during SAW that feature work from across the region, including Just like this, again this time, a survey show of paintings from Myanmar curated by Louis Ho, and back at Tajong Pagar Distripark, the work of ten artists from the Philippines featuring in Isang Dipang Langit: Fragments of Memory, Fields of Now curated by Dong Jo Chang.
But if today’s version of new media is more your bag, be sure to check out Reworlding, a group show curated by Debbie Ding featuring female artists reimagining the utopian virtual spaces of the 1990s and 2000s, and the sixth edition of the VH Award by Hyundai Motor Group, which returns to Singapore for the second time, with five commissioned works by emerging multimedia artists and collectives. On the equally pioneering, but more established side of new media, Lawrence Lek brings his pioneering take in Sinofuturism to the ArtScience Museum. A filmmaker, musician and artist, Lek works at the very edge of art and science, and his site-specific exhibition NOX features game stations, videos, soundscapes and an immersive narrative about an imagined Anglo-Chinese tech company that collectively look at a future populated by smart systems and intelligent machines. Of course, if you’re really here for the shopping then you can make the short walk to Marina Bay Sands, home to Singapore’s premier Art SG fair, and, from this year’s edition, home to the more regionally focused curated presentation at S.E.A. Focus.
