The best things to do in Singapore this week (Dec 9-15)

Get your cameras ready as Gardens By The Bay illuminates with brightly lit outdoor and indoor artworks. Japanese art collective teamLab, famed for the Future World exhibition at the ArtScience Museum, is combining technology and art for the #FutureTogether exhibition in honour of Singapore's bicentennial. See the Dragonfly Lake scattered with brightly-hued ovoids or egg-shaped structures floating about on the water's surface, and more. #FutureTogether officially runs from January 16 to March 31 next year, but the outdoor artworks are on view from December 15.

Look at the world through the lens of the remarkable photographer and Cultural Medallion award recipient, Chua Soo Bin. Featuring about 100 photographic works and archival materials, the exhibition highlights the camera master's ability to capture definitive portraits and sensitive images, as well as his position in the rise of photography in Singapore. Observe the iconic portraits of 14 established Chinese ink masters, giving you a glimpse of the nuances of their daily lives. A selection of ink paintings by these masters are also showcased alongside to deepen your appreciation for the art. 

Wonder what our world will look like in the next 200 years? Peer into the future at this immersive and experiential exhibition that showcases the imaginary worlds hatched by various artists, architects, filmmakers, writers and theatre companies from Singapore and beyond. Echoing the structure of From Singapore to Singaporean: The Bicentennial Experience, the exhibition takes you on a journey through five acts, exploring how climate change and lack of biodiversity can affect our future lives.  

Interested to find out the connections between art and architecture in Singapore, Bangkok and Manila? Suddenly Turning Visible: Art and Architecture in Southeast Asia illuminates the lesser-known links between art and architecture, and the role of institutions in the development of art in the region. The exhibition showcases artworks from the period (1969 to 1989) alongside archives, and newly commissioned and restaged works. 

Singapore’s visual arts enclave Gillman Barracks opens the floor for Collisions: Information, Harmony and Conflict. Best known for his Aggregations – freestanding and wall-hung sculptural works made from thousands of triangular forms wrapped in antique mulberry paper tinted with teas or pigment – Chun Kwang Young showcases his solo exhibition on the heels of his recent one at the Brooklyn Museum in New York which ran for seven months. 

Showcasing works by leading contemporary women artists from Southeast Asia, the exhibition brings together a diverse set of art practices, highlighting the individual artistic responses to the conjunction of three key communal axes: Art, Woman and Southeast Asian. Marvel at the stunning works of artists such as Anida You Ali, Fika Ria Santika, Suzann Victor and many more.

Singapore Biennale is an international contemporary art exhibition featuring over 70 international artists and art collectives. Get ready to chin stroke your way through multiple venues across the city including National Gallery Singapore, Asian Civilisations Museum and Gillman Barracks. Aptly titled Every Step in the Right Direction, it invites art lovers to not only appreciate the artworks visually but to feel inspired to change the world around them for the better.

Gillman Barracks presents Points of Articulation, Singaporean artist Solamalay Namasivayam’s first major retrospective exhibition. Look at more than 30 of his works done in a variety of mediums to render the human figure – whether it's monochromatic charcoal or ink on paper, to coloured pieces done in pastels or goache. These works were carefully selected from his extensive oeuvre, providing insights into his life and practice as both an artist and art educator. 

Peep at a late businessman and calligrapher's massive art collection at the Asian Civilisations Museum's Living with Ink. The exhibition will present over 130 treasured Chinese paintings, porcelains, and scholars' objects donated to the museum since 2000 by the Tan family. This includes paintings by modern Chinese masters Ren Bonian, Xu Beihong, and Qi Baishi – as well as works made by artists in Singapore in the 1930s through the 1980s. 

French-Vietnamese Artist Hom Nguyen presents his solo exhibition, Racines (or 'Roots'). Hom was raised in Paris by a single mother on the streets and was always in search of his ethnic roots and a place to call home. The collection of twenty artworks explores the artist's introspection of himself and his ongoing quest to make peace with his cultural identity and sense of belonging as an Asian immigrant in Europe. It also further strengthens Miaja's mission to establish a cultural link between the gallery's native Europe and its adoptive Asia with cross-cultural themed art.  

A picture is worth a thousand words, even tales from the yesteryears. Let Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall transport you back in time in its latest exhibition featuring photographs taken by early Chinese photography studios. Uncover the stories of Chinese portrait painters who learned photography and later immigrated to Singapore to set up photography studios after the First Opium War. The early Chinese Photography studio contributed to documenting Singapore's colonial history from the 1890s.

Don't miss this remarkable collection of 1,208 wartime artworks – one of the largest known private collection of its kind outside of Vietnam. The pieces were loaned by Ambassador Dato' N. Parameswaran, and formed his collection during his tenure as Malaysia's Ambassador to Vietnam from 1990 to 1993.  The focus is placed on the works of eight key artists who were assigned to the front as war artists by the government in Hanoi, and includes supporting texts and excerpts of poems and memoirs. 

A solo exhibition by Indonesian artist Albert Yonathan Setyawan, Variations on Symmetry reflects the relationship between materiality, geometry and meditative art practice. Symmetry is inherently present in the domain of decorative arts. The exhibition showcases his new ceramic works and works on paper created between 2018 and 2019.     

Curious about what goes on behind the scenes of Disney’s magical movies? Catch a rare glimpse into the world of artistry and technological innovation that have bippity boppity boo-ed Disney’s beloved characters to life. Marvel at over 500 artworks including original drawings, paintings, sketches and concept art from the highly anticipated sequel Frozen 2, the first Disney cartoon Steamboat Willie and other iconic classics.

Singapore-based artist, filmmaker, and curator Kent Chan's works explore the tropical imagination and the relationship between moving images and the modern city. The works and practices of others often form the locus of his works that have taken the form of film, text, conversations, and exhibitions. tropics, a many (con)sequence locates Kent Chan’s film Seni as the exhibition’s locus, inquiring on the tropical imaginary that continues to frame aesthetics and artistic identities.

The Malay Heritage Centre is housing a very special exhibition that invites all to explore Singapore's significance in the maritime world. Go back in time and watch it all unveiled through the lens of various Malay world perspectives and indigenous material culture, juxtaposed against European colonial sources. Through resurfacing these earlier histories, narratives and representations, the exhibition showcases multiple contexts to reveal how the Malay community is formed in nineteenth-century Singapore, and aims to expand historiographies of Singapore and its connections to the region.

The annual Jalan Besar Salon pop-up returns with more exciting art programmes that spark up conversations and discussions on the various creative ways humans cultivate a sense of place and belonging, adapt to change and aging, and develop social relations outside of comfort zones. Highlights include The Dry Bar, a play partly inspired by the French Salons and showcases people in communities performing care services to anyone willing to venture into their spaces. 

Travel back in time to the bustling trading port of the East Indies that drew the attention of the Dutch and British East India Companies. The East Indies were the centre of the spice trade, comprising the Malay Peninsula and Indonesian Archipelago. But the European arrival is only a fraction of its longer history. Uncover the other factors at play leading up to the events of 1819 through this informative exhibition.

Imagine the secrets that lie behind the walls of City Hall. If your curiosity is piqued, journey through this immersive multimedia experience and uncover the lesser-known tales of Singapore’s most pivotal moments including major historical events that took place in the iconic building via the Gallery’s interactive digital wall.

Take a glimpse into what a Peranakan family’s domestic life was back in the 20th century at this eye-opening exhibition by NUS Baba House. The Baba House was established as a conservation project with the intention of mobilising research and study into a range of disciplines. Teaming up with the Peranakan Association of Singapore, this project has since afforded a range of perspectives relating to the building’s history. The interpretative display on the first and second floors is showcased as an identifiably Peranakan home with artefacts that typify early 20th century Straits Chinese materials and social histories, as well as the contemporary perspectives that may complicate them. This exhibition brings together artefacts, artworks, video and audio recordings, and textual sources that examine the myriad ways in which the Peranakan identity is constructed.

Teaming up with Ikkan Art Gallery, Miaja Gallery is proud to present digital artworks by teamLab as part of its permanent installation. An art collective based in Tokyo, teamLab is widely known to create art that transcends boundaries. Feast your eyes on Waves of Light, a digital artwork consisting of computer-generated waves that are expressed as a continuous body of water, creating a new experience between humans, nature, and art. Inspired by nature, life cycles, and the infinite movement of particles, the artworks showcased in this gallery tell stories that resonate deep within the human essence.