In celebration of the museum’s first anniversary at the Osborne House, The Private Museum is proud to present Strange Connections: Art and Architecture by Richard Hassell. Renowned as the founding director of WOHA Architects, Richard Hassell played a pivotal role in shaping the museum’s new chapter within the historic building.
In May 2023, The Private Museum officially received the keys to the Osborne House, situated atop the hill at 11 Upper Wilkie Road. The century-old house has endured the passage of time, its walls echoing stories. From its colonial-era beginnings as a residence to hosting a myriad of occupants from different historical periods, and now a haven for the arts, the house is a vessel that encapsulates countless narratives.
The exhibition explores the intricate relationship between art and architecture, delving into the historical narratives of Osborne House dating back to the 1830s. As part of research for the museum’s reimagining, Hassell discovered strange connections between the building’s history and his own. The showcase reflects his ongoing investigation into emergent phenomena through playful visual constructions, encouraging contemplation of the interplay between the physical and the abstract, and the historical and the contemporary.
Hassell’s explorations in art began in his childhood, with his practice now spanning drawing, painting, and sculpture. His passion for the scientific, philosophical, and cultural elements of patterns, systems, and networks manifests in both his architecture and art. In particular, his exploration of complex tiling, made public in 2016, had led to exhibitions in Singapore, Taiwan, Europe and the USA.
Strange Connections invites visitors to an exhibition of art and architecture that delves into history, science, and the web of connections that link us all.
The exhibition will be run from 30 May to 28 July 2024.
Download our exhibition leaflet for more information here.
Download our exhibition press release here.
The Private Museum Singapore is pleased to present Make Yourself at Home: A Glimpse into All Welcoming Scenarios, an exhibition at a special interim location, a private residence, since it moved out of its previous home. Having been preparing for its relocation to 11 Upper Wilkie Road, it was also a time for introspection, ruminating on what it means to be ‘The Private Museum’.
The conceptualisation of the exhibition began in part as an existential query into the meaning behind why The Private Museum was founded, and continues to pose similar questions to the public through a multi-focal approach. The exhibition is carved into two parts that correspond to the disciplines of art and design, offering a glimpse of the museum’s upcoming programmes at its new home, which is projected for its inaugural launch in the second half of 2023, on top of its ongoing developments in design and branding.
Revisiting the museum’s key platforms, the exhibition features selected works and practices by artists from Singapore and the Asia Pacific such as Kumari Nahappan, Natee Utarit, Ian de Souza, Andy Yang, and independent curator John Tung. Within the design and branding presentation are an interactive and research-driven showcase presented in collaboration with local design studio Currency as well as a dollhouse model of the museum’s new home, designed by the award-winning WOHA Architects, and produced by Integrus Model.
Drawing from the philosopher Jacques Derrida’s ethics of hospitality, Make Yourself at Home is a double entendre that not only reflects the roots of the museum as a hosting ground for open collaboration with art practitioners and home for private collections, but also the ‘hospitality’ that is shown when a host welcomes guests into their living abode or art space. The locale of the exhibition being in a home is itself an enactment of one such welcoming scenario, serving as an apt reminder of the importance of patronage.
“In order to constitute the space of a habitable house and a home, you also need an opening, a door and windows… a passage to the outside world / to the stranger” says Derrida of hospitality. The exhibition invites viewers to embark on their journey of reflection—whether as a first-time visitor or a devoted museum-goer—to really consider what the words ‘The’ ‘Private’ ‘Museum’ put together as an entity in the arts eco-system could be for them.
This exhibition will run from 7 January to 26 March 2023.
Download our exhibition leaflet for more information here.
In conjunction with Singapore Art Week 2020, The Private Museum (TPM) Singapore is pleased to present Emerging: Collecting Singapore Contemporary – Selections from the DUO Collection. As part of TPM’s 10th anniversary celebrations, the museum revisits its foundation of bridging the private and the public; this exhibition is the first in a series of five featuring an array of private collections in Singapore.
The DUO, whose collectors prefer to remain anonymous, started building their collection five years ago with a focus to support emerging artists in Singapore and Southeast Asia, though they have been collecting widely for more than a decade.
Emerging is the inaugural showcase of selected works collected in the past five years featuring 16 Singapore-based artists. These works reflect some of Singapore’s emerging urgencies in recent years by responding to themes of identity, migration, urbanisation, the environment, places and spaces. The exhibition seeks not only to stimulate new conversations on Singapore contemporary art through the lens of private collectors, but also to expand on their role in the art eco-system as imperative patrons of the arts.