Long-Term Exhibitions

SIAPA NAMA KAMU? ART IN SINGAPORE SINCE THE 19TH CENTURY

Ongoing | City Hall Wing, Level 2, DBS Singapore Gallery

The Gallery’s long-term exhibitions feature over 800 Singapore and Southeast Asian artworks, and are constantly evolving. Every year, visitors can discover over 200 new pieces.

These updates to our long-term exhibitions allow us to display our artworks in new and exciting configurations, enabling us to tell different stories and introduce new perspectives. Each gallery has a distinct focus, which may be a specific medium or subject matter, or tracing an impulse shared by various artists at a particular moment in time.

Refreshing our exhibitions also allows us to showcase works that we have recently acquired alongside our latest research, thereby continually expanding and enriching the narratives of art in the region.

Lai Foong Moi. Not titled (Pulling in Fishing Nets), 1963. Oil on canvas, 38.5 × 53.5 cm.

Lai Foong Moi was the first graduate from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts to further her artistic training in Paris. She returned to Singapore in 1958 and painted many landscapes and portraits of everyday life in Singapore and Southeast Asia. This monochromatic work effectively conveys the teeming activity of fishermen reeling in their nets despite the sparing use of colour and lack of pictorial detail.

On display in DBS Singapore Gallery 1.

Sarkasai Said Tzee Aspirations 1989 Batik 60 × 60 cm

Aspirations combines assertive, energetic lines with vibrant colours. Sarkasi Said Tzee was an avid naturalist and often drew upon nature’s splendour to create dynamic visual rhythms and textured compositions. Throughout his lifetime, Sarkasi sought to elevate the appreciation of batik painting in Singapore, both as fine art and as a commercial craft, and was awarded the Cultural Medallion in 2020 in recognition of his achievements and contributions.

On display in DBS Singapore Gallery 2.

BETWEEN DECLARATIONS & DREAMS: ART OF SOUTHEAST ASIA SINCE THE 19TH CENTURY

Ongoing | Supreme Court Wing, Levels 3–5, UOB Southeast Asia Gallery

Nhek Dim Village Scene 1960 Oil on canvas 55 × 75.5 cm

Nhek Dim was the most celebrated painter in Cambodia during the 1960s, when the nation became embroiled in Cold War conflicts. Village Scene was featured in a 1961 exhibition organised by the United States Information Service in Phnom Penh, and subsequently reproduced in Free World, a magazine published by the United States in several Southeast Asian languages and distributed widely. The warm colours and flattened forms are typical of Nhek Dim’s work. This painting evokes a sense of tropical abundance, a trope often employed by modern artists in Southeast Asia to describe peasant life.

On display in UOB Southeast Asia Gallery 13.

This is an extremely rare painting of General Aung San, the key architect of Myanmar’s independence from British colonial rule and father of Aung San Suu Kyi. Likely painted from a photograph, this vividly realistic yet heartfelt portrait was painted by U Ngwe Gaing, a leading modernist painter of the period.

On display in UOB Southeast Asia Gallery 6.

U Ngwe Gaing. Portrait of General Aung San. c. 1950−1967. Oil on cardboard support lined on pre-primed cotton fabric, 50 × 39.5 cm. This acquisition was made possible with donations to the Art Adoption & Acquisition Programme.

LONG–TERM EXHIBITIONS

THE TAILORS AND THE MANNEQUINS: CHEN CHENG MEI AND YOU KHIN

Ongoing | Dalam Southeast Asia, Level 3, UOB Southeast Asia Gallery

Chen Cheng Mei. Market Scene, Sri Lanka. 1975. Oil on canvas, 61 × 80 cm. Recent acquisition. You Khin. Untitled (Doha Scene: Pakistani Bakers). 1990. Oil on canvas, 65 × 100 cm. Recent acquisition.

Dalam Southeast Asia is a project space located within the UOB Southeast Asia Gallery. Projects presented here ask critical questions and explore lesser-known narratives in Southeast Asian art, while attempting a recalibration of what a collections-based display is and what it may seek to achieve.

This exhibition features artworks by Chen Cheng Mei and You Khin. Both artists adopted highly individual styles, led unusual lives, and have been outliers in most art historical accounts. Although Chen and You Khin did not know each other and were born two decades apart, they shared a lasting affinity for portraying everyday scenes in diverse locations.

While Chen lived and worked in Singapore, she travelled extensively in Africa, South Asia and elsewhere. She made this painting, Market Scene, Sri Lanka, aftter one of several trips there. Her journeys inspired a planetary consciousness that is reflected in her artwork.

You Khin was born in Cambodia but lived in Africa and the Middle East between the 1970s and 2000s. His artworks often capture aspects of daily life, reflecting his belief that “My world is modern.”

The UOB Southeast Asia Gallery is made possible with the support of UOB.

Visit our website for the e-catalogue for The Tailors and the Mannequins. It examines how the two artists drew from their encounters with modern people in unfamiliar locations, and features a selection of photographs, sketches and biographical timelines.

https://www.nationalgallery.sg/southeastasia-dalam-tailors-mannequins

UNREALISED

Ongoing | Accessible only via the Gallery Explorer app

unrealised is a virtual experience developed in dialogue with three artists—Heman Chong, Ho Tzu Nyen and Erika Tan. It tests the potentials of the digital image within the physical spaces of the Gallery’s long-term displays. To access unrealised, please download the Gallery Explorer app from the App Store and Google Play store or borrow a device from Tour Services at Level 1, Padang Atrium Counter.

For more information, please visit nationalgallery.sg/unrealised.

SCAN TO DOWNLOAD APP

Please note earphones are required to experience unrealised.

LONG–TERM EXHIBITIONS

OUTBOUND

Ongoing | Various locations nationalgallery.sg/outbound #outboundsg

Haegue Yang with her work Forum for Drone Speech—Singapore Simulations 2019. Laminated plywood; stainless steel wire mesh; powder-coated metal pipe, prints on holographic paper; transparent sticker and loudspeaker; Nadine’s voice: audio, single channel, stereo, approx. 12 min; birdsong: audio, single channel, stereo, 29 min 58 sec.

An OUTBOUND commission by National Gallery Singapore

Encounter Forum for Drone Speech- Singapore Simulations as you wander through the City Hall Foyer at Level 2. Inspired by the Gallery’s architecture and its connections to Singapore’s colonial past, this installation by Korean artist Haegue Yang is borne out of intensive research on historical figures and events. Yang employs the sculptural language of visual abstraction, weaving imagery, text and sound together to highlight how museums continually rearrange and reinterpret objects to envision alternative narratives. The illusory qualities of the materials used, including faux marble and holographic prints, express a sense that history and the present are in flux, provoking questions on identity, belonging and engagement.

OUTBOUND is a series of unique commissions that imaginatively transform transitionary spaces at the Gallery. Each commission is an artistic and temporal landmark that anchors and guides the visitor’s experience while highlighting the Gallery’s iconic architecture. The inaugural season presents projects from artists Gary Carsley (Australia), Jeremy Chu (Singapore), Jane Lee (Singapore), Haegue Yang (South Korea) and Yee I-Lann (Malaysia).

LISTENING TO ARCHITECTURE: THE GALLERY’S HISTORIES AND TRANSFORMATIONS

Ongoing | City Hall Wing, Level 4, ArchiGallery

Zai Tang. Resident Frequencies: A Brief Aural History of National Gallery Singapore. 2017. Eight-channel sound installation, 36 mins. Commissioned by National Gallery Singapore. Image courtesy of the artist. The architecture of the City Hall and former Supreme Court buildings may be imagined as an ongoing conversation between different generations across time. The inaugural exhibition at the ArchiGallery offers insights into the enduring histories and architectural designs of the two national monuments and their dramatic transformations into a home for Southeast Asian art. It also features never-before-seen artefacts excavated from the Gallery’s grounds, and a commissioned sonic artwork by artist Zai Tang that draws on the historical, social and spatial memories created in the buildings.

LAW OF THE LAND: HIGHLIGHTS OF SINGAPORE’S CONSTITUTIONAL DOCUMENTS

Ongoing | Supreme Court Wing, Level 3, Chief Justice's Chamber & Office

Organised by the National Archives of Singapore (NAS) and the National Library Board (NLB), this exhibition explores the history of Singapore’s constitutional development from a British settlement in 1819 to its emergence as a sovereign republic in 1965. It presents a selection of 23 rare documents from the NAS and NLB's collections, each capturing a key moment in Singapore's legal history and journey to independence.

Third Charter of Justice, 1855

This document affirmed the reception of English law in Singapore and provided the settlement with its own professional judge (then known as a Recorder).