Catch the first-ever joint exhibition that spotlights six celebrated, post-independence Singaporean artists: Chng Seok Tin, Jaafar Latiff, Mohammad Din Mohammad, Goh Beng Kwan, Lin Hsin Hsin, and Eng Tow.
Titled Something New Must Turn Up: Six Singaporean Artists After 1965, this exhibition draws your eyes to six solo presentations, with each tracing the artist's practice across decades and disciplines. It's a rich visual experience and a testament to the art pioneers' contributions to the development of Singapore's modern and contemporary art.
Be enthralled by over 300 artworks and more than 100 archival materials and objects spanning across decades and disciplines – from collage, printmaking and installations, to batik, cloth and digital art. Get into the minds of the post-independence Singaporean artists and educate yourself on the breadth and depth of the artistic practices.
The solo presentations will also provide the audience with a deeper understanding of how this group of artists actively expanded the boundaries of art in post-independence Singapore through innovative artistic practices and techniques that contributed to the development of Singapore's contemporary art.
The exhibition title, Something New Must Turn Up, is taken from Ho Ho Ying's preface for the inaugural Modern Art Society exhibition catalogue in 1963. An apt parallel to a time of flux in the ongoing pandemic, Ho Ying's preface highlighted cultural anxieties that were prevalent after Singapore's independence from Britain in the same year, followed by its separation from Malaysia in 1965.
Start at Gallery A, which showcases the works of the printmaker and multidisciplinary artist Chng Seok Tin and Mohammad Din Mohammad who worked at the intersections of art, music, traditional healing and Malay martial arts. Both artists drew upon spiritual and non-Western knowledge systems in conceptualising their art.
Gallery B spotlights artists Goh Beng Kwan and Eng Tow, where you'll find key works such as Goh's Urban Renewal painting series which documents the architectural changes to Singapore's urban landscape as a result of its transformation into a developmental state, and the attendant loss of heritage and culture.
Finally, head on to Gallery C where abstract painter Jaafar Latiff and interdisciplinary artist Lin Hsin Hsin are paired together. The two artists use technology in innovating alternative ways of making and thinking about art, which was in line with the move towards automation and computerisation in 1980s Singapore.
