Singapore Art Week 2026 Is Here — But Where Should You Actually Start?

Singapore Art Week 2026 (SAW 2026) is back from January 22–31, and for ten days straight, art pretty much takes over the city. Yes, there are the big, headline-grabbing moments — for instance, mega art fairs ART SG and S.E.A. Focus are now happening under one roof at Sands Expo — but SAW has never just been about art fairs. It’s about how the entire island slowly turns into a giant, walk-through art map, whether you’re intentionally gallery-hopping or just heading to work.

This year’s lineup has a lot to dig into. There’s Wan Hai Hotel: Singapore Strait, where a heritage hotel lobby gets reworked into an immersive exhibition featuring Southeast Asian artists; Reworlding, curated by Debbie Ding, which looks at virtual worlds, AI, and digital life from the perspective of Asian female media artists; and Ground Loops, a new media project linking Singapore and New York artists through sound, code, and experimental tech. The ongoing Singapore Biennale also carries on through SAW, with artworks popping up in unexpected places across the city — malls, parks, historic sites — so you’ll probably run into it even if you’re not trying to.

And then there’s everything else that makes SAW feel less intimidating and more fun. Light to Night turns ten this year and runs longer than usual, Gillman Barracks goes playful with oversized inflatable sculptures, and Sonic Shaman (an experimental sound festival from Taiwan) lands in Singapore for the first time.

Add art on buses, installations at MRT stations, neighbourhood art walks, and immersive shows at the new IMBA Theatre, and SAW 2026 feels less like a “serious art thing” and more like an excuse to wander, stumble into something interesting, and maybe discover an artist you’ll be following for years. So where should you start? Here are 15 works and installations - from blue chippers and rising names alike - across the city to check out:

Digging Stars by Ibrahim Mahama

WHAT: Hailed as the art world’s most influential figure last year by ArtReview magazine, Digging Stars is the Ghanaian superstar’s first show in Singapore, presented as part of The Pierre Lorinet Collection. Mahama is known for turning everyday materials like jute sacks into striking artworks, and in this show he uses fabric, photos, and video to explore Ghana’s history, labour, and industry. By repurposing discarded objects, he turns them into storytellers, showing how ordinary things carry hidden histories that connect people and places across the world.

WHERE: Art Outreach Singapore, 5 Lock Road, #01-06 Gillman Barracks

WHEN: 16 Jan - 8 Feb, 11am - 7pm

Wan Hai Hotel: Singapore Strait

WHAT: Originally staged at Shanghai’s Rockbund Art Museum in 2024, where the ground floor was turned into a speculative hotel, the latest iteration Wan Hai Hotel: Singapore Strait takes places on our shores. For twelve days, The Warehouse Hotel becomes an immersive playground where over 20 artists from Singapore, Southeast Asia, and beyond explore the Singapore Strait through installations, performances, film, and even custom menus.

Inspired by Tongan thinker Epeli Hau’ofa’s idea of the ocean as a “sea of islands,” the show invites you to see the ocean — and the city — as networks of people, trade, and stories. From maritime labor to cross-border kinship, the hotel turns into a space to wander, reflect, and experience art in ways that are surprising, immersive, and deeply tied to place.

WHERE: The Warehouse Hotel, 320 Havelock Road

WHEN: 20 Jan - 31 Jan

More details here.

Exposure_Exposure

WHAT: Exposure_Exposure is basically a mini art adventure you can stumble into around independent art space Objectifs’ outdoor yard. Curated by fast-rising art stars and winners of the Objectifs Curator Open Call, Daniel Chong and Dylan Chan, it brings together five local artists—Chok Si Xuan, Grace Tan, Ian Tee, PG Lee, and Sookoon Ang—who play with everything from kinetic steel sculptures and huge inflatables to floating curtains, clay tools, and tiny wild pockets.

The show is all about two kinds of “exposure”: literally being out in the buzzing Bras Basah–Waterloo streets, and that low-key thrill of being noticed during Singapore Art Week. It’s not flashy or over the top—these works quietly rub against everyday life, making you stop, look, and actually feel the city in a way you probably never have before.

WHERE: Various outdoor spaces around Objectifs, 155 Middle Road

WHEN: Jan 20 - March 1, 12pm - 7pm (Tuesdays to Saturdays), 12pm - 4pm (Sundays)

The Art Picnic: An Act of Creation

WHAT: Art gallery INSTINC is flipping the usual art exhibition on its head; for five days, the space becomes a buzzing, communal studio where 35 artists from Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, and beyond create live in front of you. Instead of just looking at finished pieces, you get to watch, engage, and even join in as works take shape. Each day, six to seven artists will work for five hours straight, sharing their process, experiments, and ideas, so no two visits are ever the same. It’s part performance, part studio, all about celebrating the energy of creation.

WHERE: INSTINC Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 39 Keppel Road, #03-10

WHEN: Jan 23 - 31, 1pm - 7pm (weekdays), and 1pm - 6pm (weekends)

Reworlding

WHAT: This show brings together seven Asian female artists — 00 Zhang, Shan Wong (Flyingpig), Line of Piers, Jo Ho, Priyageetha Dia, Debbie Ding — who look at technology and virtual worlds in a totally different way: not as perfect, futuristic spaces, but as fragile, messy, and full of surprises. Through VR, video, games, sound, and sculpture, they reveal AI that glitches, avatars acting up, and digital worlds that need care. Curated by Debbie Ding, the show asks what it’s like to live with tech when it doesn’t work as promised, and how creativity thrives in those cracks.

WHERE: Starch, #02-11 Tag A Building, 81 Tagore Lane

WHEN: 20 - 21 Jan (7pm – 9pm); 22 – 25 Jan, 29 Jan – 1 Feb, 5 – 8 Feb, 12 – 15 Feb (2pm – 8pm); closed on Mondays - Wednedays

 The Print Show & Symposium

WHAT: If you’ve ever wondered how printmaking can feel fresh, exciting, and totally contemporary, this is your jam. The debut edition of STPI’s The Print Show & Symposium kicks off this month, turning the spotlight on print as a serious art form — from centuries-old techniques to bold, new experiments. Over ten days, you can wander through works by legends like David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, Sol LeWitt, and Louise Bourgeois, alongside Southeast Asian heavyweights like Chng Seok Tin, Kim Lim, and Dinh Q. Le. Plus, the accompanying talks and conversations give you a peek behind the scenes at what makes print such a versatile, boundary-pushing medium.

WHERE: STPI Creative Workshop and Gallery, 41 Robertson Quay

WHEN: Jan 22 - 31, 10am - 7pm

More details here.

The 6th VH AWARD

WHAT: Landing in Singapore for Art Week 2026, the sixth VH AWARD Exhibition brings together five newly commissioned media artworks that sit right at the intersection of art, technology, and how we imagine the future. Launched by Hyundai Motor Group in 2016, the VH AWARD has quietly become one of the more interesting platforms for emerging media artists working in and around Asia — especially those using video, CGI, sound, and speculative storytelling to ask big questions about who we are, where we’re headed, and how machines are increasingly part of that picture.

This year’s exhibition leans into those tensions. Expect works that blur reality and virtual worlds, rethink histories we thought we knew, and probe the uneasy relationship between humans and technology. From a CGI reimagining of 18th-century knowledge exchange between Asia and Europe, to poetic takes on machine memory, ecological mythologies, and the invisible labour behind “human-like” technologies, the selected works are ambitious without being alienating. There’s myth, research, speculation, and emotion — not just tech for tech’s sake.

WHERE: Artspace @ Helutrans Gallery 1, 39 Keppel Road #01-05, Tanjong Pagar Distripark 

WHEN: Jan 20 - Jan 31, 20 - 22, 25 - 31 Jan, 10am - 7pm, and 23 - 24 Jan, 10am - 10pm 

Sonic Shaman 2026: Borderless

WHAT: Singapore Art Week 2026 at the Singapore Art Museum is shaping up to be one of the most fun, accessible entry points into contemporary art — even if you don’t usually “do” museums. Beyond exhibitions, SAM is activating the city with sound, performance, public art and hands-on experiences, including the Singapore debut of Sonic Shaman 2026: Borderless, a three-day experimental sound festival where music, noise and performance blur.

Bringing together a wild mix of experimental performers, DJs, and sonic artists from around Asia and beyond, you’ll hear everything from layered synth and drumming by Sl_OWTALK to psychedelic folk-inspired electronics from Mong Tong, immersive spatial sound by Mervin Wong, boundary-pushing improvisation by Stylish Nonsense and dj sniff (Tokyo), participatory sound art with Cherry Chan ft. DJ Zai and Itek, ritual-inspired pieces by Umeda Tetsuya (Osaka), and socially charged performance pop from The Filipino Superwoman Band.

Add to that a Memory Market where taste, scent, and touch come into play, and you’ve got a festival that feels less like a concert and more like a shared sensory experience — curious, immersive, and refreshingly different from anything else on the Singapore Art Week calendar.

WHERE: Singapore Art Museum at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, The Spine, 39 Keppel Road

WHEN: Jan 23 - 25, various timings, more details here

ART SG + S.E.A. Focus

WHAT: One of the coolest shifts at Singapore Art Week 2026 is how the tentpole art fairs are starting to blur into one another in a good way. For the first time, S.E.A. Focus is fully embedded within ART SG, meaning you can experience both the heavyweight international gallery fair and a tightly curated showcase of Southeast Asian artists in one go — no venue‑hopping, no separate tickets, just a more seamless way to see how regional voices sit alongside the global art market.

This year’s S.E.A. Focus also comes with a clearer curatorial angle, spotlighting artists who respond to real‑world issues like ecology, conflict, and care, rather than just visual spectacle. At the same time, ART SG itself is expanding beyond white‑cube booths with dedicated sectors for performance, film, and immersive experiences — and adding new incentives like the ART SG FUTURES Prize presented by UBS for emerging artists, plus a growing SAM ART SG Fund that helps museums acquire regional works — signalling that art fairs are no longer just about buying art; they’re becoming places to experience, think, and feel culture as it unfolds in real time.

WHERE: Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Marina Bay Sands, 10 Bayfront Avenue

WHEN: Jan 23, 12pm - 7pm, Jan 24, 11am - 7pm, and Jan 25, 11am - 6pm

Get your tickets here.

OH! Moonstone

WHAT: OH! Open House is back with its 12th artwalk, OH! Moonstone: Everything Changes, Everything Stays the Same, and it’s a rare chance to slow down and explore a neighbourhood most of us zip past without a second thought. Spread across Moonstone Lane, the walk weaves through homes, workshops, temples, and green patches, using five site-specific installations by local and international artists to uncover the stories hidden in everyday spaces. You’ll see a 1950s family home come alive with personal memories, a carpentry studio revealing the quiet beauty of labour and craft, and a miniature car collection transformed into a meditation on devotion and community.

Outdoor installations map land and urban change, while photography and textile works capture how memory, care, and history linger even as the city reshapes itself. Curator John Tung and OH! Executive Director Alan Oei emphasise that Moonstone isn’t about romanticising the past—it’s about noticing how continuity and transformation coexist, and how art can reveal the hidden layers of the places we live in.

WHERE: Moonstone Lane

WHEN: Jan 18 - 25, 5pm - 8.30pm (weekdays), and 10am - 8.30pm (weekends)

Get your tickets here (SG Culture Pass credits can be used).

SAW in 10 Days 2026

WHAT: Feeling overwhelmed by the avalanche of events during SAW 2026? Well why not join an unusual tour where all the work of finding the good stuff has already been done for you? Non-profit organisation Post Museum is putting on SAW in 10 Days 2026: Seeing Art Differently, a youth-led platform to experience Singapore Art Week in a totally new way.

There are seven curated art trails to explore, from walks led by LASALLE students reflecting on what it means to guide others through art, to youth ambassador-led tours giving aspiring curators real hands-on experience, and tours co-created with the visually-impaired community that use touch, sound, and movement to navigate exhibitions. Totally volunteer-run and non-commercial, this initiative is all about slowing down, sharing the experience, and discovering how art can be inclusive, surprising, and fun—all at the same time.

WHERE: Various locations, more details here

WHEN: Jan 22 - 31, various timings

Keiko Moriuchi: Motif

WHAT: Secondary art marketplace Art Again presents Keiko Moriuchi in Motif, the legendary artist’s first ever Singapore show, and a rare chance to see one of the last living members of Gutai, the daring Japanese postwar art movement that pushed materials and ideas to the limit.

Now 83, Moriuchi is still experimenting with gold leaf, cosmic symbols, and bold geometric patterns, creating works that feel both spiritual and infinite. Highlights include her Lu: The Never-Ending Thread series, where lines stretch across canvases like threads into the cosmos, and playful pieces inspired by mythology and mathematics. The show at independent art space Tokonoma invites you to experience her art not just with your eyes, but with a sense of wonder—and a feeling that anything is possible.

WHERE: Tokonoma, 16 Shaw Road, #03-10

WHEN: Jan 17 - Feb 1, 11am - 7pm

The Earth Laughs in Flowers

WHAT: Dawn Ng’s The Earth Laughs in Flowers is a homecoming you won’t want to miss. Building on her earlier series Into Air (2018–), which played with time, colour, and ice, the Singapore artist returns with 12 huge paintings—one for each month of 2025—made by freezing pigment, earth, and sand into giant ice blocks, then shattering and “sowing” them onto wooden canvases.

For the first time, the black-box stage of the Singapore Repertory Theatre is transformed into an immersive space where you can see melting, gravity, and flow shape the work in real time. Inspired by geology, global events, and even Emerson’s poetry, this show is a meditation on change, memory, and the small moments that make life—and art—so magical.

WHERE: Singapore Repertory Theatre, 20 Merbau Road

WHEN: Jan 21 - 25, 11am - 8pm, and Jan 27 - Feb 1, 1pm - 8pm

Isang Dipang Langit: Fragments of Memory, Fields of Now

WHAT: This show is your chance to experience the Philippines’ biggest contemporary artists like Oca Villamiel, Leeroy New, the Aquilizans, Eisa Jocson, and more, all under one roof. Framed around the idea of a “sliver of sky,” the show is less about a single story and more about moments and fragments—memories, histories, gestures, and everyday life—colliding in real time.

Huge installations, sculptural works, performances, films, and paintings turn the warehouse into an open field where you decide your path, exploring how personal and collective memory shape the now. It’s immersive, it’s tactile, and it’s designed to make you move, feel, and connect—perfect for anyone curious about how art can make the past and present come alive.

WHERE: Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Blk 37 Keppel Road #01-02

WHEN: Jan 20 - 31, 10am - 7pm

NOX by Lawrence Lek

WHAT: Step into the future with London-based art titan Lawrence Lek’s NOX, which is making its Southeast Asian debut. Imagine a sci-fi city where self-driving cars and caregiving robots not only move—but think, feel, and even make mistakes—and you get to explore it all.

Part game, part film, part immersive installation, NOX lets you interact with Enigma 76, a self-driving car learning autonomy, or Guanyin, a robot therapist inspired by the Buddhist goddess of mercy. The show asks big questions: how should humans treat thinking machines, and what does a world shared with AI look like?

Winner of the 2024 Frieze London Artist Award and named by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in AI, Lek turns futuristic ideas into a fully playable world, making this a must-see for anyone curious about technology, ethics, and imagining tomorrow.

WHERE: ArtScience Museum, 6 Bayfront Avenue

WHEN: Jan 23 - April 19, 10am - 7pm (till 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays)

Get your tickets here.

HighHouse x The Salvages with Shinichi Osawa

WHAT: It isn’t art week without a slew of parties, and one of the best in our books is the one thrown by homegrown streetwear powerhouse The Salvages. HighHouse x The Salvages kick off Singapore Art Week with a standout night featuring legendary Japanese producer Shinichi Osawa, aka Mondo Grosso. Known for his boundary-pushing blend of house, jazz, and electronic sounds, Osawa takes over the decks alongside Nicolette and Samrove. Expect a night of sleek, sophisticated beats that showcase why he’s one of Japan’s most influential music creators—an essential stop for anyone serious about music.

WHERE: HighHouse, 1 Raffles Place, L61-62

WHEN: Jan 24, 11pm - 3am

Get your tickets here