Singapore Has Emerged As A Global Art Hub

Fuelled by multicultural traditions, dynamic investment, and an active push to bring art to the masses, Singapore has emerged as a global art hub. By Sanjay Surana

- Sanjay Surana

On the banks of the Singapore River, as it winds its way out to Marina Bay, a pair of bronze statues unveiled in 2002 hints at the dynamics that shaped the early days of Singapore. A Great Emporium by Malcolm Koh shows a European in a safari hat discussing business with a Chinese trader, labourers weighing a bag of goods to the side, while in River Merchants by Aw Tee Hong, the merchant Alexander Laurie Johnston is rapt in conversation with a Chinese trader and Malay dignatory as workers strenuously load a bullock cart.

Singapore’s role as a hub of commerce should come as little surprise, given Sir Stamford Raffles’ seminal words in 1819 soon after arriving here: “Our object is not territory but trade, a great commercial Emporium, and a fulcrum whence we may extend our influence politically.” That the Lion City uses art to celebrate its economic origins speaks volumes about the importance of that art here in the Little Red Dot. Singapore might not boast the art history or pedigree of the Italian Renaissance Italy or Impressionist-era France, but it has a booming, pulsing art scene with plenty of home-grown talent supported by world-class museums and galleries.

“The art scene in Singapore has grown exponentially in the last few decades,” notes Russell Storer, Deputy Director, Curatorial & Research, at the National Gallery, which opened in 2015. “It has been triggered by key developments in government policy, such as the establishment of the National Heritage Board and the National Art Council in the late 1980s, the opening of the Singapore Art Museum in 1996, and a growing engagement with the international art world through participation in the Venice Biennale [since 2001] and the establishment of the Singapore Biennale in 2006.”