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- City state’s visual arts event to kick-start the new year with its 11th edition from January 6 to 15, which will draw local and international art enthusiasts and collectors
- Visitors can expect to see more than 700 artists and curators from around the world come together to present more than 130 programmes and exhibitions
Singapore’s signature visual arts season, Singapore Art Week (SAW) 2023, returns for its 11th edition next month. The 10-day celebration of visual arts, with the theme “Art Takes Over”, runs from January 6 to 15 and will feature more than 130 events and programmes, including art fairs, festivals, installations, interactive projects and exhibitions across the island and also online.
The exciting line-up of art experiences – organised by Singapore’s National Arts Council and Singapore Tourism Board – will be presented at museums, galleries, independent art spaces and public spaces across Singapore, with a variety of discussions, talks, walks and tours to showcase the city state’s diverse art scene. More than 700 artists and curators from Singapore and around the world will be taking part in SAW 2023, the biggest visual arts season regionally.
Here we take a look at five not-to-be-missed programmes during SAW 2023.
1. Light to Night 2023: Here and Now
The National Gallery Singapore’s Light to Night festival, which has the theme of “Here and Now”, features newly commissioned works that explore what it means to live in the present. Works by artists from Singapore and abroad, including Poland, the United Kingdom and Indonesia, will invite visitors to reflect on contemporary topics including deforestation and the passing of time.
One of the artworks on show, Ephemeral, for example, saw Australian design studio, Atelier Sisu – led by award-winning artists Renzo B. Larriviere and Zara Pasfield – create an immersive, experiential light-and-sound environment, which aims to visually capture the transient nature of things in the form of bubbles. It is meant to appeal to visitors’ innate playfulness, while evoking a sense of childlike wonder.
Date: January 6 to 26
Venue: Civic District, 1 St Andrew’s Road, #01-01, Singapore 178957
Admission: Free
2. ARTWALK 2023
This annual multidisciplinary public arts festival, will be set in the historic precincts of Little India and Katong-Joo Chiat, after taking place in online and hybrid formats during the past two years. Now in its ninth edition, it comprises wall murals, workshops, live music and performances, which touch on Singapore’s culture, heritage and traditions, while highlighting how it is people within a society that enable culture to persist or slowly evolve. ARTWALK 2023 will feature reflections and impressions of contemporary artists, and encourage visitors to contemplate and envision different ways in which culture can grow.
Date: January 6 to 15
Venue: Little India and Katong-Joo Chiat
Admission: Free, preregistration and paid programmes
3. ART SG
This inaugural art fair, running from January 12 to 15 at Sands Expo and Convention Centre, at Marina Bay Sands, will be Southeast Asia’s largest – and the biggest launch of such an event in Asia-Pacific for a decade. The fair will present artworks from more than 150 leading galleries from around the world. It will provide a Southeast Asian meeting point for collectors and buyers from across the region and beyond within one of the world’s most dynamic cultural landscapes.
Renowned international galleries will join those from Singapore and other Southeast Asia countries in showcasing artworks in different mediums including paintings, sculptures, photography and installations, as well as new digital and blockchain art experimentations.
Date: January 12 to 15
Venue: Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre, 10 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore 018956
Admission: Ticketed
4. Third-Wheeling, Awkward Party
This two-day interactive communal dining experience is a collaboration between the city state’s popular Middle Eastern restaurant, Artichoke, and the artistic duo of Rachael Cheong and Sheryll Goh, known as Awkward Party. It is being hosted at the restaurant, with two sittings per night at 6.30pm and 8pm on January 10 and 11. Diners should prepare to “work” for their food because the different courses on the menu will be presented in unconventional ways, within various parts of a floor-to-ceiling art installation.
Previous editions of this experience have seen familiar objects, such as cutlery, utensils, a tablecloth and candelabra become larger-than-life centrepieces that have disrupted the dining experience. For those diners who are unable to savour the experience because seating is limited, the installation will also be on display, left in its “lived in” state, as if they have just missed the party.
In the same area of the Bras Basah Bugis precinct, foodies who prefer to sample local culinary delights can sign up for the Food x Art x Heritage Tour, organised by Let’s Go Tour Singapore to uncover the food heritage in the vicinity alongside the stories of the past through existing murals and public artworks. Nearby, in the obscure nooks and corners of Block 261 in Waterloo Street, check out Wild Flowers, by Robert Zhao Renhui, an international multi-award winning Singaporean artist. Zhao’s work seeks to showcase how nature coexists with man-made architecture.
Date: January 6 to 15
Venue: Artichoke, 161 Middle Road, Singapore 188978
Admission: Dining experience on January 10 and 11 is S$75 (US$55) ++ per person. Registration via Artichoke
5. S.E.A. Focus
S.E.A. Focus – a leading immersive showcase event and art market hub for collectors, artists, galleries and the public dedicated to Southeast Asian contemporary art – will be one of the anchor events during SAW 2023. It will bring together established and yet-to-be-discovered artistic talent to foster a deeper appreciation of contemporary art and artists in the region through cultural exchanges and specially curated talks and discussions.
The event, with the theme “A World, Anew”, explores the idea of new beginnings and how vast potential can be found in minuscule or humble sources. Organisers hope it will herald many new creative artworks as the region embraces renewed opportunities in the post-Covid-19-pandemic world.
Date: January 6 to 15
Venue: Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 39 Keppel Road #01-05, Artspace@Helutrans, Singapore 089065
Admission: S$10 per ticket. Registration via S.E.A. Focus
For the complete line-up of programmes, go to artweek.sg or follow @sgartweek on Facebook, Instagram and Telegram.