Singapore Art Week 2023: Highlights From The City's Biggest Celebration Of Arts And Culture
Check out these exciting events during Singapore's biggest arts & culture week of the year
With Singapore reopening to the world in the early half of 2022 after over two years of pandemic restrictions, the past few months have seen unprecedented crowds across flagship events which came back to the city bigger and better than ever, from Formula One's Singapore Grand Prix back in September to ZoukOut in early December. Now 2023 is promising to bring even more exciting festivals and celebrations our way, with dozens of events to look forward to at Singapore Art Week (SAW) just days after ringing in the new year. From the launch of ART SG - what promises to be the biggest art fair launch in Southeast Asia in nearly a decade - to the return of the National Gallery's signature Light to Night, BAZAAR has rounded up a curated selection of events you won't want to miss.
Related article: ART SG Director Shuyin Yang On Launching Southeast Asia’s Biggest Art Fair Yet
One of Singapore Art Week's most popular events, Light to Night 2023 takes over the National Gallery this 6-26 January, with over 60 multi-disciplinary programmes and works presented by local and international artists. This year's theme, 'Here and Now,' explores what it really means to experience the present moment through art, inviting visitors to reflect on contemporary topics through the artwork on display.
The Aliwal Urban Art Festival (AUAF) runs all of Saturday, 14 January, from 12pm until late. A celebration of Singapore's vibrant urban arts scene, you can expect to find live street art painting sessions, indie band performances and a block party with hip-hop dancers in the heart of the Kampong Glam & Little India neighbourhoods. Some highlights include a highly-anticipated collaboration between Zero, the founder of renowned urban art collective RSCLS, and Yogyakarta-based graffiti artist Tuyuloveme on the side wall of the Aliwal Arts Centre.
Making a grand return to Gillman Barracks after a pandemic hiatus, Art After Dark has been around since 2014, drawing thousands of people each year. While there won’t be any live music or big parties at this year’s edition, most of the galleries will stay open late as it typically attracts a younger and more diverse crowd than other art events.
The ongoing contemporary art mega-festival, staged once every two years, has exciting new updates for Singapore Art Week, which includes free admission to its exhibition at Tanjong Pagar Distripark from 6 to 15 January. The seventh edition of the biennale, officially named Natasha, is being helmed by a team of four co-curators, Binna Choi, Nida Ghouse, June Yap and Ala Younis, and will feature additional workshops and activations for SAW.
Commissioned by the National Arts Council, the anchor event for Singapore Art Week will feature over 25 galleries featuring some 50 artists from around the world. Championing the inherently diverse and vibrant world of Southeast Asian art, the event promises to bring both new and seasoned collectors to Tanjong Pagar Distripark from 6 to 15 January. To further connect Southeast Asian contemporary art to the rest of the world, S.E.A. Focus will be partnering with leading global online art marketplace Artsy so potential buyers can have a seamless experience.
Southeast Asia's largest-ever art fair, ART SG, is finally ready for launch after being delayed due to the pandemic. Bringing together over 150 leading galleries from around the world, the international art fair will be taking over the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre from 12 to 15 January in partnership with UBS. In addition to the main GALLERIES sector, the rest of the fair will be split into sections which reflect the event's mission of furthering the rapid artistic development of the Southeast Asian region. This includes REFRAME, a sector dedicated to digital art, FUTURES, which aims to support galleries younger than six years old, and FOCUS, a contextualised sector with solo/duo artist programmes and curated thematic presentations.