An annual celebration of the visual arts, the Singapore Art Week 2021 is back to celebrate our vibrant art community with an impressive range of online and onsite programs!
Staying true to Singapore Art Week’s (SAW) theme of “Art Takes Over”, SAW 2021 will be bringing visual arts to everyone and everywhere – from arts and cultural institutions such as National Gallery Singapore and art spaces within Gillman Barracks to unconventional public spaces and neighbourhoods including national parks, bus stops and more.
This ninth edition of the SAW will be presenting a line-up of over 100 programs across both physical and digital platforms. Featuring the works of over 300 artists from Singapore, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, The Netherlands, UK and USA, the nine-day celebration (22 - 30 Jan) is sure to have something for art enthusiasts of all ages.
Some of the event highlights include the Light to Night Festival 2021, ARTWALK at Little India and Moo Moo PARK, Asia’s first drive-through exhibition. For a full list of SAW 2021 event line-up, visit Artweek.sg.
1. Light to Night 2021: _____ -in-Progress
Image credits National Gallery Singapore
Venue: Civic District
Date: 22 Jan – 31 Jan 2021
Time: Varies
Fee: Free with some paid activities
Returning this year to light up the Civic District in an array of colours is the Light to Night Festival. Centred on the theme, _____ -in-Progress, audiences and artists are both encouraged to fill in the blanks with their hopes for the future.
Presented in a hybrid format, the festival offers art installations, Augmented Reality Instagram filters, and workshops among others that you can experience onsite and online, from the comforts of your home. In addition to the annual Art Skin on Monuments, which will see the façades of buildings like the National Gallery, Asian Civilisation Museum and Esplanade light up in an immersive display, this year the Rotunda Library & Archive within the National Gallery will also project an immersive display.
2. ARTWALK In Spite Of…
Image credits Singapore Art Week
Venue: Little India
Date: 22 – 23, 29 – 30 Jan & 5 – 6 Feb 2021
Time: -
ARTWALK Little India is an annual multidisciplinary public art festival set in the cultural precinct of Little India. This event is presented by LASALLE College of the Arts and the Singapore Tourism Board with the support of Little India Shopkeepers and Heritage Association.
Do note that video projection is available only on Friday and Saturday from 7 pm to 10 pm.
3. Art Week at Bras Brasah District
Image credits Zhu Hong/Clive Street, 2019
Venue: Bras Brasah
Date: 22 Jan – 30 Jan 2021
Time: 12 pm – 7 pm
Bras Basah Complex uniquely houses a collective of galleries under one roof. For their annual show, ten art galleries will come together again and present the diversity of contemporary to traditional interpretations of Chinese ink, bringing to the fore a younger generation of modern artists alongside pioneers of Nanyang art in Singapore. Artists include Lim Tze Peng, Goh Beng Kwan, Chua Ek Kay, Chen Wen Hsi, Tong Chin Sye, Boo Sze Yang, Hong Sek Chern and many more.
There will be guided tours, art demonstrations, talks and other hands-on activities by the galleries and grassroots organisations to engage the public, creating a platform for newer artists to showcase their artistic creations.
4. Creative Unions
Venue: Funan, 107 North Bridge Road, Singapore 179105
Date: 22 Jan – 21 Feb 2021
Time: 11.30 am – 8.30 pm
As the first mall-wide art activation in Singapore, Creative Unions is a major month-long, art-meets-retail programme at Funan. Envisioning an imaginative and collaborative future for both art and retail industries, it features exciting and unexpected partnerships between Singapore’s artists and Funan’s tenants across fashion, food, lifestyle, technology and experiential trades. Look forward to a unique and rewarding ‘shoppable' experience that will enrich your understanding of the arts.
Some highlights include collaborations between fashion labels and multidisciplinary artists for capsule lines of clothing and accessories as well as in-store installations, a lifestyle showroom transformed into an upscale homeware fair featuring one-of-a-kind artist-designed objects, site-specific music experiences created in partnership with an audio brand, and more.
5. Moo Moo Park
Artwork Mural – ANTZ/Image credits Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre
Venue: Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre, 1 Straits Boulevard, Singapore 018906
Date: 22 Jan – 28 Mar 2021 (closed: 11 – 13 Feb)
Time: 12 pm – 10 pm
Fee: $10 (drive-through) | $5 (walk-in)
Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre presents Moo Moo PARK, Asia’s first Drive-Through Exhibition, in partnership with The MeshMinds Foundation.
Original works by 8 Singaporean contemporary artists have been transformed from digital drawings to 3D installation art, selfie filters and augmented reality murals powered by Spark AR from Facebook. Blending creativity, resilience, and imagination, this immersive exhibition in a carpark is the perfect way to welcome the Year of the Ox with your loved ones!
6. Re-written: The World Ahead of Us
Robert Zhao, The Time Tree/Image credits National Arts Council
Venue: Jurong Lake Gardens, Bishan Ang Mo Kio Park, Luxus Hill Park, Sengkang Riverside Park, Punggol Waterway Park, Lower Seletar Reservoir Park
Date: Late Jan – early Jun 202
Time: 24 hrs
A brand new commission by the Public Art Trust, RE-WRITTEN presents 20 text-based public artworks by 20 Singapore artists contemplating on the multitude of changes – from the minute to the tremendous – experienced in our daily lives since the onset of COVID-19.
Scattered across six parks on the Coast to Coast trail spanning east to west, the artworks resemble visual poetry unfurling across the island, awaiting discovery.
7. Bus.Stop.Art
Image credits Merryn Trevethan
Venue: Bus stops along route 175
Date: 21 Jan – 3 Feb 2021
Time: 24 hrs
Curated by Amelia Abdullahsani and Merryn Trevethan, Bus.Stop.Art. is an innovative public art exhibition constituting art installations and interventions by Singapore-based artists at bus stops along the east-west route of bus 175.
Ten Singapore-based artists respond to the theme #ArtMovesUs, and requisition advertising panels of bus stops for their artworks. This exciting island-wide project takes art out of museums and galleries into the public realm where Singaporeans live, work, and commute, bringing a much-needed sense of joy and wonder to the everyday.
8. Inner Like the OutAR
Venue: Gillman Barracks, Blk 22 #01-33
Date: 19 - 31 Jan 2021
Time: 5 pm - 11 pm
Interact with a fully immersive 'OutAR' environment, essentially an audio-visual simulation of our natural world. Then, disengage in the 'Inner' installation space, encountering curated natural scents, sounds and textures. Through physical and augmented architecture, the installation seeks to bring you closer to the environment and to questions perceptions of it.
The entire experience can be quite photo-worthy with the use of AR via smartphone browsers to capture quirky pictures and family portraits too!
With over 100 art installations and activities happening for SAW 2021, its easy to get lost! Don't worry, you can view where all the happenings are located across the island on this interactive map.
