National Gallery Singapore

An iconic painting depicting a bunch of students gathered around a table has become a prominent fixture at "Siapa Nama Kamu?" the inaugural exhibition of the DBS Singapore Gallery at National Gallery Singapore. It's none other than National Language Class by Chua Mia Tee (蔡名智) (b. 1931), one of the leading realist artists in Singapore's art history. The 1959 painting captures an important stage of Singapore's history, depicting a group of Chinese students learning Malay, the newly designated national language of Singapore then.  But if you walk into the gallery now hoping to catch a glimpse of the epochal work, you'll find that it's missing. All that's left is an empty wall with a sign that leads to a new exhibition at Level 4 Gallery of the City Hall Wing. The exhibition in question? Chua Mia Tee: Directing the Real, the artist's first museum exhibition since 1992.  With the new exhibition, National Gallery Singapore hopes to offer audiences an insight into Chua's distinct view on realism that goes beyond the mere representation of reality, taking inspiration from the artist’s quote on how “the painter assumes the role of screenwriter, director and actor to freely shape the subject’s image”. Opening to the public on November 26, Chua Mia Tee: Directing the Real showcases his masterfully painted works that depict vivid scenes and portraits of life and people of Singapore during its transformative years from the 1950s to 1980s. There's the Epic Poem of Malaya (1955), where the

The Ng Teng Fong Roof Garden perched atop the National Gallery Singapore is now home to a new large-scale installation by Antony Gormley. On display from August 6 to October 30 next year, Horizon Field Singapore (2021) will be exhibited alongside three other sculptures that trace four decades of Gormley's practice: Sense (1991), Close V (1998), and Ferment (2007). Placed at key locations throughout the Gallery, these works form a sequence of what the artist calls “acupuncture points” within the architecture, activating their surroundings and provoking connections with their audience.  The exhibition offers an introduction to the artist's extensive body of work, which draws on a range of traditions and ideas including Buddhist sculpture and philosophy, minimalism and quantum physics. Many of Gormley's works encourage viewers to focus their attention on their own movement and perception in relation to the surrounding space.  But first, let's talk about the exhibition highlight: Horizon Field Singapore, a new work that's part of the Gallery's annual Ng Teng Fong Roof Garden Commission. Standing at almost five metres tall and spanning the garden gallery, the installation invites visitors to walk through a vast matrix of intersecting aluminium rings, allowing them to co-create the experience by stepping through the rings. The spatial experience continually shifts as they walk through.  "Horizon Field is about how each of us carry our own horizon with us as we move through space an

Go on an art trail at National Gallery Singapore with their latest exhibition – Ever Present: First Peoples Art of Australia. The largest exhibition of Aborginal and Torres Strait Islander art, it showcases over 170 artworks drawn from the collections of the National Gallery of Australia and The Wesfarmers Collection of Australian Art, including many of their most significant artworks. Produced by over 150 Aboriginal and Torres Islander artists, the visually captivating works dated from as far back as 1890 until the present. The installations, bark paintings and sculptures celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art while grappling with Australia’s complex histories. Visitors may also learn more about Ever Present through its related programmes via the Art Journeys function at https://web.nationalgallery.sg/ or through the Gallery’s new interactive Activity Cube and Digital Self-Service Kiosks.