Art Takes Over Singapore Art Week’s 10th Edition

Events will take place in unconventional spaces across Singapore, including heritage buildings in the Civic District, a warehouse in Tanjong Pagar Distripark, and the Lau Pa Sat hawker centre.

Singapore Art Week (SAW) will present over 130 physical and digital projects when it returns from 14 to 23 January 2022. It will take place alongside art fair S.E.A. Focus, which was launched by STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery and is supported this year by Art Basel.

SAW is a joint initiative by Singapore‘s National Arts Council (NAC) and the Singapore Tourism Board. More than 600 artists, curators, creatives, and partners will present works across Singapore in art venues, unconventional spaces, and online.

‘The world is opening up, literally, and figuratively in spirit, and we see SAW as a catalyst for the discovery of art from Singapore and the region,’ said Tay Tong, Director of Sector Development (Visual Arts) at NAC.

Participants include non-profit art association Angkatan Pelukis Aneka Daya (APAD), which seeks to foster collaboration between artists of different generations, and the Critical Craft Collective Singapore, founded by Adeline Kueh and Hazel Lim, which will tell the story of the textile calico.

National Gallery Singapore will return with the sixth edition of the Light to Night Festival 2022, which will feature innovative digital and on-site art experiences in Singapore’s Civic District. In the past, the festival has included large-scale projections on historic buildings.

Singapore Art Museum will launch their new space during SAW with exhibitions including REFUSE, an installation devoted to the Singapore art rock band The Observatory.

SAW 2022 will see art at the historic Lau Pa Sat hawker centre for an exhibition called Hawker! Hawker! curated by Yen Phang and Oh Yam Chew, as well as a tiger-themed collaboration between artists and a range of retail brands at Funan mall, organised by Chan + Hori Contemporary to ring in the year of the tiger.

Four of the projects selected in the SAW open call will occupy two warehouse spaces at the industrial Tanjong Pagar Distripark (TPD). One of them, A N T I N O D E S, combines elements of street culture, music, architecture, fashion, and spirituality with experimental modes of presentation such as robotics and augmented reality.

‘SAW 2022 is energised by the exciting propositions that our artists, curators, and presenters have created,’ Tay added. ‘Many step outside of their comfort zone to create work that responds to the times, while remaining connected to our audiences here and abroad.’ —[O]

Main image: Korakrit Arunanondchai, A Machine Boosting Energy into the Universe (2021), installation view. The work will be presented in Gallery 2 at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, from January to April 2022. Courtesy of the artist and BANGKOK CITYCITY GALLERY.