Ocula’s Guide to Sailing Through Singapore Art Week

With birthdays comes celebration, and as Singapore marks 60 years of independence this year, the Lion City toasts this milestone with a stellar programme throughout Singapore Art Week (17–26 January 2025).

Whether you’re visiting for a weekend or the full ten days, we’ve got you covered with the best exhibitions, art fair offerings, and most coveted fish soup in the city.

Early Birds Head to Gillman Barracks

For those heading in early, Gillman Barracks—the colonial-era barracks turned contemporary art hub—is an ideal place to start. Situated at 9 Lock Road, the Barracks are around a ten-minute walk from Labrador Park MRT Station.

Among the solo shows, we recommend heading to Yeo Workshop for krØmæ§piritⱫ, a presentation of new works by Fyerool Darma (until 2 March 2025); Mizuma Gallery for The Old Soul | The New Universe (until 16 March 2025), Ari Bayuaji‘s mesmerising showcase of mixed-media installations and woven textiles; and Richard Koh Fine Art for The Squares (until 15 February 2025), an exhibition by Burmese artist duo Tun Win Aung and Wah Nu that explores three decades of personal and political history in Myanmar.

Robert Zhao Renhui b. 1983, Singapore Follow +

Nearby at ShanghART Gallery, you’ll find Robert Zhao Renhui‘s latest photographic works that capture the transformations that emerge from layers of waste and decay in The Divine in the Trash Stratum (until 23 February 2025). Do check opening hours in advance, as not all galleries may be open on Sundays and Mondays.

After a day of perusing galleries, the Barracks have you covered with plenty of places for a bite to eat and drink. Ida’s Bar is the shiniest new addition: an alfresco courtyard bar with a menu assembled by the team behind Cat Bite Club. For food, Naked Finn is a great option—no frills, just top-notch gills on grills (booking highly recommended). For coffee, check out Kaffa Bella. And for the audiophiles, The Blackbird Singapore hosts a great programme of live music.

A Day Out at National Gallery Singapore and Singapore Art Museum

There’s much to see at Singapore’s two top art museums. So as to easily roll into the bright lights of Tanjong Pagar in the evening, we recommend starting the morning at National Gallery Singapore in the historic port district and work your way south.

Start at PPP Coffee in Funan for your morning getup, just a five-minute walk away from the National Gallery. There, your first stop is the newly opened Singapore Stories: Pathways and Detours in Art, a group exhibition looking at how artists navigated colonialism, urbanisation, and globalisation in and beyond Singapore.

Take the stairs (our New Year’s resolution) to level three, where Kim Lim: The Space Between. A Retrospective charts the evolution of the Singapore-born British artist’s sculptural and print practice over four decades (until 2 February 2025). On level four, Becoming Lim Tze Peng traces the artistic evolution of the 103-year-old Singaporean ink artist, with over 50 works from Singapore’s public art collection and the artist’s own (until 23 March 2025). And finally, on the museum’s roof garden gallery, Aotearoa New Zealand artist Lisa Reihana presents the larger-than-life kinetic installation GLISTEN, adorned with 114,000 shimmering discs that dazzle in the sunlight.

Lunch is in order, and we’ve had a tip-off from Patrick Flores, chief curator at the National Gallery, that you should look no further than the gallery itself. National Kitchen by Violet Oon, located in a handsome, panelled 1920s-style dining room serves up some of Singapore’s best Peranakan dishes. Other options for Peranakan cuisine outside the white cube are True Blue in nearby Katong, and The Blue Ginger, one of the local scene’s first Peranakan restaurants, housed in an original three-storey shophouse on Tanjong Pagar Road—a 20-minute walk to Singapore Art Museum.

We have three exhibitions to tick off our checklist at SAM. If you didn’t get to experience Robert Zhao Renhui‘s magnificent installation at the Singapore Pavilion at Venice this year, now’s your chance. Seeing Forest (until 18 May 2025) examines the ways Singapore has evolved into the island it is today, and how urban design shapes the natural world.

Next door is No Patents on Ideas (until 23 March 2025), the first Singapore solo exhibition of Bangkok-based artist Pratchaya Phinthong, where you can see a new video installation Undrift. On level one, Yee I-Lann: Mansau-Ansau showcases the true spectrum of the Malaysian artist’s practice, with materials ranging from photocollage, silk and batik, to bamboo pus and pandanus.

GUTAI Art Movement GUTAI: Beyond the Canvas Whitestone Gallery 11 January–2 March 2025
Singapore

Also at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Whitestone Gallery has our vote with Gutai: Beyond the Canvas (until 2 March 2025), a group exhibition showcasing the eccentricities and performances of the 20th-century Japanese avantgarde collective. Expect iconic works from Tsuyoshi Maekawa, Shuji Mukai, and Takesada Matsutani, along with Yuko Nasaka, one of the few women associated with the group.

It must be time to head to a hawker centre, the open-air food halls for which Singapore is renowned. While the quality can vary across each centre, look out for the queues that will indicate the best stalls. On his quest for the best chicken rice in Singapore, Anthony Bourdain tipped Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice in Maxwell Food Centre, so I’d say that’s a good place to start. However, with TV endorsements by world-famous chefs comes queues, so Yi Jia Teochew Fish Porridge Fish Soup; Jiang Nan Wei Dao (the ex-Din Tai Fung head chef took a year to perfect the iconic fried rice and pork chop here); Rojak Popiah & Cockle (for popiah—an egg, vermicelli, and bean sprout burrito-like delicacy); and Old Nyonya (for laksa) are excellent options in the popular centre located in Tanjong Pagar.

Onto the Fairs: ART SG and S.E.A. Focus

With so much going on during Singapore Art Week, you’d been forgiven for momentarily forgetting the art fairs that brought many of us here in the first place: ART SG and S.E.A. Focus. Following last year’s success, ART SG returns for its third edition at Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre from 17 to 19 January, with VIP preview day on 16 January.

Retaining its position as Southeast Asia’s leading international art fair, ART SG’s 2025 programme features 106 galleries from 30 countries and territories. Among the returning international galleries are Lehmann Maupin, showcasing a wonderful 2024 painting by Mandy El-Sayegh, and Thaddaeus Ropac with a curated selection of artists such as Martha Jungwirth, Robert Rauschenberg, and Alvaro Barrington. White Cube is also in attendance, with highlights including Theaster Gates’ recent sculpture Black Mountain (2024), and a small-scale Minoru Nomata painting, contributing to the fair’s strong offering of contemporary Japanese art.

Leading spaces in the region such as Gajah Gallery, Ames Yavuz, Galerie Urs Meile, and Tang Contemporary Art are back and with stronger presentations than ever. Singapore-based STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery highlights works from past STPI residencies, while also featuring works by Heman Chong, Genevieve Chua, and Hong Zhu An, among others; while a bronze figurative sculpture by the Singaporean artist Yunizar has caught our attention in Gajah Gallery‘s booth.

Returning to Tanjong Pagar Distripark is boutique fair S.E.A. Focus. The fair places a strong emphasis on the Southeast Asia region, showcasing the integral part Singapore plays in culture, conversations, and business in this part of the world. Helping it do so are 40 artists from 21 exhibitors including Cuturi Gallery, Silverlens, and STPI. S.E.A. Focus opens to VIPs on 17 January, with general admission from 18 to 26 January 2025.

To round off the week, we suggest a crawl through Singapore’s after-hours spots—the first being Light to Night Singapore 2025, the day-to-night visual festival in the heart of Singapore’s Civic District. Patrick Flores suggests spending an evening lounging on the Padang to take in the cool breeze and mesmerising light projections on the facade of the National Gallery.

As for bars, ART SG director Shuyin Yang vows that ATLAS is the best bar in Singapore, situated on the ground floor of Parkview Square. ‘The moment you step inside, you’re transported to the elegance of the roaring 1920s with its opulent architecture and luxurious ambiance, and the cocktails are exquisitely prepared and presented,’ Yang tells Ocula.

Now it wouldn’t be a complete guide without the inclusion of newly-opened New Bahru, the 1969 modernist-style school building turned ‘creative lifestyle destination’ in the heart of River Valley. Packed with shops, wellness, and culture spaces, it is also host to some of the city’s hottest restaurants. We suggest Artichoke for Middle Eastern-inspired sharing plates, Kotuwa for traditional Sri Lankan, while Yang confirms that The Coconut Club have taken the humble nasi lemak ‘to new heights’.

For great listening in New Bahru, head to the recently opened Bar Bon Funk, a buzzy cocktail bar kitted out with an incredible Hi-Fi sound system. While on music, Offtrack is another must, located on North Canal Road. Conceptualised by the founders of local music collective Darker Than Wax and Ice Cream Sunday’s, this music-centric bar offers up killer tunes, chilled vibe, and a small menu of pan-Asian food.

Cat Bite Club was mentioned earlier, and can be tracked down by a neon-red Cheshire cat sign on 75 Duxton Road. Enter a coffee shop and behind a thick red drape, you’ll find a cocktail bar with the largest collection of agave in the city—over 200 bottles, we’re told. (Last year, it debuted at No. 56 on World’s 50 Best Bars—I know some people are into leaderboards.) If you still have beans come midnight, head to Gibson Bar and Live Twice on nearby Bukit Pasoh Road for a nightcap. See you at Marina Sands! —[O]

Main image: Courtesy National Gallery Singapore.