Helmed by the National Arts Council (NAC), Singapore Art Week (SAW) returns to kickstart the new year with its 11th edition from 6 to 15 January 2023, drawing local and international art enthusiasts, collectors and the curious to congregate at Singapore’s premier visual arts season.

An annual pinnacle event in Asia’s visual arts calendar, SAW 2023 will see over 700 artists and curators from Singapore and around the world come together to present more than 130 programmes and exhibitions. Over the past decade, SAW has showcased the best of Singapore’s visual arts community – representing its diversity, vibrancy and growth. From leading art fairs, experiential programmes, exhibitions, tours, talks, to lifestyle activations, the wide range of arts offerings across the island in the upcoming edition provides access to the arts, connecting it to the wider society.

Singapore’s premier visual arts season presents over 130 events across the island this January. Created by the city, for the city.

Driving growth for Singapore’s visual arts ecosystem

SAW continues to be a key platform for the visual arts scene and a catalyst for discovery where artists and visitors alike are inspired and engaged to create, collaborate and connect through Singapore’s visual arts as we work with the arts community and our partners in both the public and private sector.

This edition serves as a nexus for creative collaborations where artists can expand new forms of art even beyond their usual practice, providing a platform for them to build capabilities and strengthen cross-sector collaborations such as Art x Design and Art x Tech. With its continued focus on thought leadership, SAW 2023 will also present a consolidation of panels and talks featuring invited artists and experts to share insights and experiences on pertinent topics on art today.

Mr Low Eng Teong, Deputy Chief Executive (Sector Development) at NAC, said, “SAW continues to be a key platform for us to further grow our visual arts ecosystem. As we embark on the next phase of our journey through Our SG Arts Plan (2023 – 2027), SAW represents NAC’s efforts to build a connected society for Singaporeans through accessible arts initiatives, and our hope to establish our nation as a distinctive city that inspires and creates new opportunities for our creative sector, strengthening Singapore’s creative economy.”

Enhancing Singapore as a global destination for the arts

Bringing together players from the Singapore and international visual arts ecology, this edition will also see two significant art fairs taking place – homegrown art platform S.E.A. Focus, as well as the inaugural edition of ART SG. With the return of the Singapore Pavilion from the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, and the ongoing Singapore Biennale, SAW 2023 exemplifies the strength and unity of Singapore’s visual arts community in creating a distinctive city for the arts.

Said Ms Emi Eu, Project Director of S.E.A. Focus and Executive Director of STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery, “As a pioneering art platform that brings the artistic talents of Southeast Asia together to be showcased to an international audience, S.E.A. Focus plays an important role in placing Singapore in the global spotlight as a dynamic art market player from Asia. For five years running as the anchor event of SAW, we have been working closely with NAC and our private stakeholders to expand our capabilities and influence with each edition, propelling the visual arts scene of Singapore and across the region.”

Ms Lim Shoo Ling, Director, Arts and Cultural Precincts, Singapore Tourism Board (STB), added, “SAW invites both local and international visitors to experience first-hand the best of Singapore’s visual arts through a variety of innovative and immersive experiences. The strong line up of events under SAW, including the inaugural edition of ART SG, is a show of confidence in Singapore as a regional arts hub, and strengthens our position as a leading arts and culture destination. STB will continue to work with our partners to curate and deliver innovative and exciting arts events and experiences that appeal to different interests and passions.”

Playful interactions in our city state

SAW 2023 is set to take over the island with playful interventions that transform spaces. Audiences can explore their personal connection with the environment that spark meaningful yet spontaneous interactions. This continues to be part of NAC’s commitment in making visual arts accessible for a wider audience, with experiential offerings for everyone, such as our first-ever collaboration with People’s Association, to engage with Community Arts & Culture Clubs in five neighbourhoods across Singapore as part of #ArtsInYourNeighbourhood.

Added Mr Low Eng Teong, “As art takes over our city this January, we hope many will encounter arts serendipitously and see spaces enlivened by the arts. We want the public to explore and participate in the diverse range of exciting art offerings that our arts community, cultural institutions and partners have put together. It is through these shared arts experiences that we will understand, engage and foster a deeper connection with one another.”

Starting from today, members of the public can access the refreshed SAW website for a teaser of the 2023 edition, as well as the full programme line-up and participating artists. For more information on SAW 2023 programmes, visit here.

Information of SAW highlights accurate as of 6 December 2022. Please refer here for a full list of programmes and artists involved for SAW 2023.

SAW provides artists a platform to expand new forms of art beyond their usual practice and build capabilities to strengthen cross-sector collaborations such as Art x Design, Art x Tech and even Art x Food.

Pictures in the Mind by DECK

📅 4 to 20 January 2023
📍 Peace Centre, 1 Sophia Road, (S)228149
🏷 Free admission

Pictures in the Mind is a community arts exhibition exploring the visceral nature of public memories in relation to Peace Centre, one of Singapore’s oldest shopping malls built in mid-1970s. As a 50-year-old building that marked the early decades of Singapore’s rapid development since its independence in 1965, Peace Centre exists as pictures in minds and memories, which might enable us to understand its life story between the 70s and now. Through public participation, interviews, archival materials, artistic interventions, and technology, Pictures in the Mind surfaces images that tell a myriad of stories, which are both truth and imagined.

Third Wheeling by Awkward Party

📅 Installation – 6 to 15 January 2023 | Interactive Dining Experience – 10 to 11 January 2023
📍 Artichoke, 161 Middle Road, (S)188978
🏷 Installation – Free admission | Interactive Dining Experience – SGD75

Presented as an interactive dining experience in collaboration with Artichoke across two days, Third Wheeling urges Singaporeans to re-examine the way we connect to each other through communal dining. In a disruptive floor to ceiling installation, ticketed audiences will have to work for their food. Together with Artichoke, Awkward Party will create a limited edition menu which will be presented in unconventional ways through different components of the installation. Previously familiar or mundane objects such as cutlery, table cloth, utensils and candelabra become larger than life centrepieces that alter the dining experience.

Due to limited slots of the dining experience, the installation will be on display in its “lived in” state for non-ticketed audiences.

Lines in Space by Tiffany Loy by Arts Outreach Singapore

📅 4 to 22 January 2023 | Artist Tour – 7 January 2023, 3pm
📍 Art Outreach, Gillman Barracks, 5 Lock Road, #01-06, (S)108933
⏱ 11am to 7pm daily, 11am to 9pm on 13 Jan
🏷 Free admission

Lines in Space by Tiffany Loy is an original, site-specific commission by Art Outreach that invites visitors to navigate a textile field of floor-to-ceiling line walls, and explore their connections to others while being immersed in art. Designed to encourage open exploration and close looking, the installation consists of suspended and plaited cords that play off our perception of depth, and create a heightened sense of awareness of how we navigate space.

Lines in Space is a continuation of Loy’s practice as a weaver in pushing the boundaries of weaving into sculptural forms and physical space. It proposes new ways of experiencing colour, form and movement. A series of process pieces and past works will accompany the installation to expand on her interests.

Two significant art fairs are taking place during SAW 2023 as well as two biennale presentations.

S.E.A. Focus by STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery

📅 6 to 15 January 2023
📍 Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 39 Keppel Road #01-05, Artspace@Helutrans, (S)089065
⏱ 1pm to 8pm
🏷 Ticketed

S.E.A. Focus is a leading showcase and art market hub dedicated to Southeast Asian contemporary art. A meeting point for artistic vision and vigour, S.E.A. Focus brings together a fine curation of established and yet-to-be-discovered artistic talents, providing a platform that propels diverse cultural exchanges and provokes dialogue about Southeast Asian art.

Centered around the theme ‘a world, anew’, S.E.A. Focus 2023 explores the idea of new beginnings and how vast potential can be found in minuscule or humble sources. Alongside a curated exhibition at Tanjong Pagar Distripark is an exciting line-up of experiences to engage art lovers from seasoned collectors to curious enthusiasts, including a curated film programme of artists’ video works, stimulating conversations with industry thought leaders, and exclusive access to art spaces. S.E.A. Focus is an anchor event of the Singapore Art Week led by STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery, commissioned by the National Arts Council, Singapore.

Additionally, S.E.A. Focus will be presenting SEAspotlight, a specially curated series of panel discussions and talks by artists, luminaries and passionate art personalities, to spark dialogues around Southeast Asian contemporary art and the art market.

Pulp III: A Short Biography of the Banished Book by Shubigi Rao and Ute Meta Bauer

📅 6 to 24 January 2023
📍 Art Science Museum Level 4, 6 Bayfront Ave, (S)018974
🏷 Free admission

Commissioned by the NAC for the Singapore Pavilion at Biennale Arte 2022 in Venice, Pulp III: A Short Biography of the Banished Book by Shubigi Rao returns to Singapore.

This presentation marks the midpoint of Shubigi Rao’s ongoing ten-year project ‘Pulp’, which explores the history of book destruction and its impact on the futures of knowledge. Set in the historic cities of print of Venice and Singapore, her film, ‘Talking Leaves’, explores the tales of those at the frontlines of saving books and libraries, by ways of personal confidences and poetic reflections, documentary and mytho-poetic languages. Her book, ‘Pulp III: An Intimate Inventory of the Banished Book’, chronicles her long-term artistic research process and conceptual reframing of the book and the library.

Multiple screenings, together with the exhibition of the book, will take place at ArtScience Museum, while the opening premiere for the film will be held as a single event at the Capitol Theatre. As a site connected to Singapore’s film history and landscape, Capitol Theatre foregrounds Rao’s multidisciplinary practice as a filmmaker, beyond an artist and writer.

Singapore Biennale 2022 named Natasha by Singapore Art Museum (SAM)

📅 16 October 2022 to 19 March 2023
📍 Multiple Locations
🏷 Ticketed

Embark on a journey alongside Natasha to re-discover and engage with life’s big and small questions, through experiencing artworks by over 50 artists and collaborators.

Since its launch in October 2022, the Singapore Biennale 2022 continues to evolve and transform our experience of found spaces with new encounters. From December, a new venue is unveiled at 22 Orchard Road, while Malaysian artist Shooshie Sulaiman’s ‘Kancil Menghadap Beringin’ (The Mousedeer Comes Before the Banyan Tree) is launched on Lazarus Island.

In January, a diverse range of public programmes will take place during Singapore Art Week, including biennale editions of SAM Late Nights, SAMily Funday, and artist-led workshops and activations by Wu Mali, Zarina Muhammad and the Nina bell F House Museum project.

Art Takes Over continues to be part of NAC’s commitment in making visual arts more accessible for a wider audience, with playful experiential offerings for everyone.

Sightseeing Sculpture: The Sky, The Land, and The Sea Shoebox Sculpture Biennale 2023 by Sculpture 2052, Sculpture Society (Singapore)

📅 6 January to 2 April 2023
📍 Sculpture 2052, 21 Woodlands Close, #03-16, (S)737854
🏷 Free admission

Shoebox Sculpture Biennale 2023 – Sightseeing Sculpture: The Sky, The Land, and The Sea consists of a site-specific installation prompted by the theme of sightseeing and the context of the actual site. An interpretation by artists to reposition sightseers and provide a shift in navigational point of view, the installation will be accompanied by a series of engagement programmes fashioned as guided sightseeing tours.

Sightseeing Sculpture invites you, the sightseers, to experience sculptures like you never have before. With artist-docents enacting the role of tour guides, and over a hundred miniature sculptures serving as key landmarks, Sightseeing Sculpture directs sightseers on a journey through the nuances behind the making, the techniques used to realise these sculptures, and the history of key public sculptures in Singapore.

BLOCK PARTY: Our Neighbourhood Furniture Tetris by Justin Loke

📅 6 to 26 January 2023
📍 Open space in front of 440 Pasir Ris Drive 4, (S)510440
🏷 Free admission

Inspired by the seemingly simple idea of stacking in the game of Tetris, BLOCK PARTY: Our Neighbourhood Furniture Tetris is a game where the objective is to complete a line using blocks of different shapes. Tetris often engages us to consider the ways in which different shapes in the real world can fit together. In this work, the myriad of shapes creates a visual metaphor of how diverse groups in our community can come together to form a line, keeping united and resilient against challenges. At BLOCK PARTY, multiciplicity is unity, and no one is a Misfit.

From old favourites to hidden gems, arts lovers will see various precincts and neighbourhoods come alive with new launches, expanded programmes, and the return of signature SAW events.

Light to Night 2023: Here and Now by National Gallery Singapore

Image courtesy of National Gallery Singapore

📅 6 to 26 January 2023
📍 Civic District, 1 St Andrew’s Road, #01-01, (S)178957
🏷 Free admission

Light to Night 2023 embraces the theme of Here and Now. Inspired by how artists create works in response to one’s time and environment, the festival invites visitors to reflect on contemporary topics and explores what it really means to be in the present.

With newly commissioned works by local and international artists and a series of multidisciplinary programmes, the festival is an opportunity for spontaneous and ephemeral encounters with art, while also providing the chance to contemplate the world and who we are now.

ARTWALK 2023 by LASALLE College of the Arts and the Singapore Tourism Board

📅 6 to 15 January 2023
📍 Little India and Katong-Joo Chiat
🏷 Free, pre-registration, and paid programmes

ARTWALK is an annual multidisciplinary public arts festival set in the cultural precincts of Little India and Katong-Joo Chiat. Featuring wall murals, workshops, live music and performances, the festival aims to surface the vibrance of our local heritage. Pivoting back to on-site multi-sensory art experiences after two years, ARTWALK 2023 calls on audiences to envision the various ways our culture could grow from here.

Like an echo, our culture, heritage and traditions reverberate in all directions and practices come and go like sound waves. The metaphor of an echo reminds us that our culture is in constant flux. The resounding return of ARTWALK relooks at our cultural heritage, bringing these spaces and histories alive through the reflections and impressions of contemporary artists.

The ninth edition of ARTWALK is organised by LASALLE College of the Arts and Singapore Tourism Board with the support of Little India Shopkeepers and Heritage Association.

Creative Intersections: In the Year of the Rabbit

📅 6 January 2023 to 5 February 2023
📍 FUNAN Mall, 107 North Bridge Road, 179105 (Various locations in the mall)
🏷 Free admission

Once again, taking inspiration from the traditional Chinese zodiac year, Creative Intersections in 2023 continues its marriage of artists with brands at FUNAN Mall to engage, inspire and provide easy access to art for both seasoned art lovers and mall goers alike.

after/party by Supper House x Starch

📅 17 December 2022 to 28 January 2023
📍 Supper House – 222 Tagore Lane, #04-03, Singapore 787603, Starch – 81 Tagore Lane, #02-11, Singapore 787502
⏱ Various timings
🏷 Free admission

after/party is a series of activations and a collaboration between two independent spaces, Supper House and Starch. Premised by two anchoring exhibitions, one at Supper House and one at Starch, after/party revolves around respite, joy, play and relaxation. Inspired by nightly affairs around the world, after/party is a curated list of activities and activations proposed as spaces for audiences to peruse various forms of artistic translations.

The two exhibitions, ‘Nighthawks’ and ‘There are Flowers in the Morning Mist’ at Supper House and Starch respectively will be held throughout the duration of SAW2023. Throughout the evening, there are multiple activations – performance tours, artist markets and gift stores – to delve into in the vicinity to support artists and create spaces for interdisciplinary works, while also inviting the audience to partake in and appreciate the arts through independent efforts.

Soo Bin at 90 – Art of Life, Life of Art by Chua Soo Bin

📅 6 to 26 March 2023
📍 PARKROYAL on Beach Road 7500A Beach Road, The Plaza, (S)199591
⏱ Tue – Sat: 12pm to 7pm, Sun: 12pm to 4pm Closed on Mondays and Public Holiday
🏷 Free admission

Soo Bin at 90 – Art of Life, Life of Art is a much-anticipated programme featuring iconoclastic photographer and Cultural Medallion awardee Chua Soo Bin in a launch of a special publication and a two-venue exhibition at the PARKROYAL on Beach Road and Objectifs, Singapore’s leading space for photography.

Celebrating 90 years of Chua’s extraordinary life as a photographer, gallerist, patron and collector, both the book and exhibits span his early engagement with salon photography, his ascent as one of Singapore’s most sought-after photographers, his emergence as a gallerist-dealer in the 1990s and the creative processes of his practice including his magnum opus – his landmark portraits of Chinese ink masters. This programme underscores Chua’s experience and insights on photography and cutting-edge art, the complexities of the art market, as well as the life philosophies that have kept him driven, grounded and fulfilled.

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