In conjunction with Singapore Art Week 2026, The Private Museum is pleased to present Human Being Human: Selections from the Collection of John and Cheryl Chia. Kickstarting The Private Museum’s 2026 programming, this exhibition invites contemplation on the human experience.
The exhibition title, Human Being Human, frames this contemplation as a moment of possibility: our lives are continually defined by the search for identity, the quiet, persistent aspiration for fundamental purity and goodness, even as we navigate a world characterised by upheaval. This exploration is filtered through works that focus on the human body, or the inescapable bodily experience, recognising it as the most immediate and vulnerable site of our existence.
Drawn from the private collection of John and Cheryl Chia, this collector showcase offers a contemplation of the human condition—the singular, inescapable journey shared by all. The exhibition attempts to contextualise this journey through four conceptual chapters, broadly capturing the sub-themes of Stateless, State, Statehood, and Rebirth, thereby analysing the collection of artworks that traces the human trajectory toward identity.
John and Cheryl Chia acquired their inaugural pieces of artwork approximately 25 years ago, while serving as medical officers. What began as an initial, inquisitive engagement swiftly evolved into a profound passion for learning about and interacting with art. Over the ensuing decades, this dedication has culminated in a compelling collection of works that they find both intellectually stimulating and culturally resonant.
As Cheryl Chia aptly states: “We are drawn to art that reflects our times, that reflects our experiences…(Art) it is an extension of our experiences, our thoughts, our ideas. It comes from somebody else, but it makes up the world that we live in. And we live in the here and now…”, inspiring audiences to explore how art can illuminate the complexities of contemporary existence.
The exhibition will run from 19 January to 26 April 2026.
Marking Singapore’s 60th year of independence, The Private Museum closes its year with a landmark exhibition bringing together 60 Singaporean and Singapore-based artists in a profound reflection of the Singapore spirit, in conjunction with Singapore’s 60th year of independence. The title draws from the closing words of the National Pledge, written in 1966 to unite a young and diverse nation. In this exhibition, “happiness, prosperity, and progress” are not fixed destinations but open questions. What do these words mean in 2025, and how do they resonate in our daily lives?
Shaped by a myriad of curatorial perspectives by six curators, the exhibition unfolds as a set of artistic conversations. Some works reflect on belonging, care, and vulnerability; others explore histories, stories, and names that shape how we understand ourselves. Everyday culture, sightseeing, humour, and local codes appear alongside more universal expressions of identity and memory. Themes of loss and reconnection surface too, asking what it takes to feel present again. Elsewhere, ideas of home, virtue, and lived experience open space for multiple ways of being Singaporean.
Together, these works do not define the Singapore Spirit but trace its many expressions. They suggest that happiness, prosperity, and progress are not endpoints, but ongoing practices revisited across generations, renewed through art, and shared by all who call Singapore home.
Towards Happiness, Prosperity & Progress: Reflections on the Singapore Spirit is the final instalment of The Private Museum’s 2025 programming—offering a fitting closure to a year of artistic and cultural exploration.
The exhibition will run from 2 October to 7 December 2025.
The Private Museum is pleased to present As One Thing Flows To Another, curated by guest curator Ng Hui Hsien. The exhibition reimagines culture, heritage, and traditions in contemporary contexts—connecting an expansive range of artistic forms through multidisciplinary collaborations. It explores the works of eight visual artists, and features special collaborations with leading Singaporean music charity, The TENG Company as well as Photographer and Author, Dr Chua Yang, daughter of Cultural Medallion recipient Chua Mia Tee. The exhibition celebrates the 20th anniversary of The TENG Company and the launch of the second book in the Women Inspiring Women series by Dr Chua Yang.
As One Thing Flows To Another explores the eight graces within Chinese culture: music, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, wine, flowers, and tea. Each of these elements carries a long history and profound philosophies in Chinese culture, evoking images of leisure, serenity, and refinement. Historically, they served as cultural capital, conferring status on practitioners within the realm of the literati. During ancient China, the term “six arts” developed to encapsulate some of these elements, and later, the term “four arts” emerged. In more recent times, the umbrella term “eight graces” is used.
Such observations highlight the creative evolution of language and culture. Embracing the idea of change and departing from a historical understanding, As One Thing Flows To Another reimagines the eight graces in our contemporary context, drawing inspiration from their modern associations. In this exhibition, artworks intertwine and diverge in their characteristics, forming loose and free connections that weave together broad themes of nature, everyday life, and nationhood in contemporary times.
As One Thing Flows To Another invites visitors to experience moments of inspiration, humour, and contemplation, aiming to foster a renewed appreciation for the fluidity of cultural elements and the bending of conventions that shape our world.
The exhibition will be run from 10 August to 22 September 2024.
Download our exhibition leaflet for more information here.
Download our exhibition press release here.
As part of Singapore Art Week 2024, The Private Museum Singapore is delighted to present Chronic Compulsions: Selected Works from Art Addicts Anonymous, an exhibition showcasing the groundbreaking collaboration between a local private museum, private collectors and seasoned curators.
This unique exhibition marks the 10th anniversary of the formation of Art Addicts Anonymous—a collectors’ circle that has evolved from a casual gathering of art lovers into a strong community of collectors who want to share their passion for art with society at large.
Chronic Compulsions unveils a remarkable selection of over 40 modern and contemporary works from 15 participating collections from Singapore, each piece bearing a personal connection to its collector.
As we celebrate a decade of passion and purpose, this exhibition is testament to the timeless nature of art and its transformative power. It represents the synergies between The Private Museum, Art Addicts Anonymous, and the arts community, injecting value and vibrancy into the Singapore art scene.
The exhibition will be run from 11 January to 24 March 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.
To Add a Meter to an Unknown Mountain: An Iconic Collection of Contemporary Chinese Photography features the works of four Chinese artists whose bold, conceptual art challenges the conservative society that they grew up in. As internationally renowned artists, CangXin, Ma Liuming, Liu Wei, and Zhan Wang are all important figures in the rising contemporary Chinese art scene that is taking the world by storm. In their respective styles, each of these contemporary Chinese artists expresses social critiques of the world as they see it. From the impermanent state of human actions to the harmony between nature and mankind, the photography in this exhibition highlights the relationships between man and nature, new and old, and modernity and tradition. In a rapidly urbanizing world, their work serves to capture significant moments of interaction between two starkly different worlds.
The Private Museum presents an inaugural collaboration between two Singaporean artists, Chow Chee Yong and Tang Ling Nah, who cross paths for the first time. Chow juxtaposes different locations with a single shot, creating an ambiguous “Void” that exists only within the photograph. On the other hand, Tang suggests the extension of space through her charcoal drawings of the city’s transitory spaces such as “Void Decks”, corridors and underground passageways. This exhibition attempts to document two artists’ individual journeys as well as their collaborative interactions. We question what is real and what is imaginary; as the photograph becomes a drawing, and the drawing becomes a photograph…
The Private Museum is proud to present HER IMAGE, a group exhibition that explores the representation of women in photography and video, to commemorate the International Women’s Day in March. Held in conjunction with the symposium Ways of Knowing: Asian and Middle Eastern Women in Photographs, the exhibition will explore themes on “Women, memory and history”, “Women in daily life”, and “Women artists and photo-journalists”. HER IMAGE adopts a cross-disciplinary approach in attempt to create a dialogue about woman condition in the contemporary world, with a rare focus on Asia and Middle East. The artworks portray experiences of women influenced by their particular historical, socioeconomical, and religious environments, in private and public spaces of non-Western countries.
Artists Amanda Heng (Singapore), Zann Huizhen Huang (Singapore), Noor Iskandar (Singapore), Oh Soon-Hwa (Korea & Singapore), Min Kim Park (USA), Shelly Silver (USA), and Jesvin Yeo (Singapore) will present color photographs and video works, styled from traditional photo-journalism, postmodern documentary photographs and narrative film. These artists possess backgrounds in different disciplines and use photographs or videos of women as a research method, presenting various perspectives in the social and human sciences as well as in the humanities.
For more information on the symposium, please visit www.womeninphotographsymposium.com
In conjunction with the Voilah! French Festival Singapore, The Private Museum is proud to present Chernobyl Today by Singapore-based French photographer Christophe Malcot to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl’s nuclear power plant catastrophe in 1986.The photography exhibition showcases a selection of 38 black-and-white photographs; 12 of which are in the unusual 100x40cm format.
Taken in 2015, Malcot’s black-and-white photographs paint a story with a sweet-and-sour after-taste that cannot leave anybody unmoved; a cautionary tale of sorcerer’s apprentice gone awfully wrong; a story of degeneration and regeneration; a story of hope as nature, unhindered by man, slowly reclaims its rights and takes over hubristic and now derelict man-made structures.
In celebration of International Women’s Day, The Private Museum is proud to present Oh Soon-Hwa: Coastal Regions (Delta). This solo exhibition marks the second showcase of works by Singapore based photographer Oh Soon-Hwa at The Private Museum and a return to her running series exploring the Mekong Delta in Vietnam.
The series of photographs is an investigation into the impacts of the recent climate changes affecting the landscape of the coastal regions: An Giang, Kien Giang, Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Soc Trang, Ben Tre and Can Tho; where drought, salt intrusions, soil erosion and a rise of sea level have been observed. The imagery of changing landscapes and portraits of the people in the community encapsulates the intricacy of the situation in the Delta.
Soon-Hwa’s introspection leaves room to mull over how men’s seemingly altruistic desire to control nature, in a bid to ensure their livelihoods, can be overturned by the unpredictable course of nature; resulting in the communities facing the challenges of an uncertain environmental landscape instead. The resilience of the residents in enduring the shocks and stresses of the changes—both on an individual and state level—are brought to light in her documentation of the transforming land and lives.
The Private Museum is proud to present LINES, a group exhibition which celebrates the museum’s new initiative, the emerging artist platform to support and encourage the development of emerging artistic talents in Singapore.
A manifestation of ongoing conversations between the 8 emerging artists and the curators, LINES features painting, print-making, photography, video art and installation. While exploring the idea of distinctions, the spoken exchanges probe into themes of cultural ideologies, social landscapes, identities and the human psyche. The exhibition encapsulates the nuances of the artists’ thoughts and processes through their works.
Featuring new works by Ben Yap, Brenn Tan, Izzy Tan, Jackson Kang, Odelia Tang, Quinn Lum, Rafi Abdullah and Tristan Lim.
The Private Museum (TPM) Singapore is pleased to present Repeat, Repeat, Repeat; revising the phenomenon of printing—a group exhibition curated by Zaki Razak. This marks the second edition of the TPM Guest Curator series—collaborating with Guest Curators to facilitate and support independent and experimental curatorial practice, and to present different perspectives on our world. The exhibition will feature works by seven artists including Miguel Chew, Weixin Chong, Mona Choo, Urich Lau, Nadia Oh, Shin-Young Park, and Yeo Shih Yun.
There have been numerous exhibitions based on traditional printing methods and the expanded practice of artists who adopted painterly approaches; explored a certain degree of experimentation; challenged the convention in what is permissible; and demonstrated sophisticated control of process. What seems more substantial is the repeating pattern of thematic exhibitions, which emphasized on the possibilities of print. There seems to be a similar sentiment towards an often-repeated source, the rockstar of printmaking, Albrecht Dürer. His works are the first to be considered the most refined and celebrated due to their meticulous and dynamic forms which never fail to feed on our sight.
One definite consensus made is not to realise a medium-based approach exhibition but to break open the closed system of perception of printmaking and to instil a point of discussion on the phenomenon of printing; responding to the essence of the tradition or the emergence of the mechanism of multiplication and repetition; the context of its evolution and revolution; and what its consequences are in this day and age. The artists’ visual responses in forms and formation are meant to be symbolic visual cues to the journey of printing towards a knowledgeable ascent—to bring a certain degree of consciousness. What was before and after the invention of the Gutenberg printing machine and how did printed matter change or affect the human condition?
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.
“Building, structure, edifice. Home, office, organisation. Community, city, country. Shelter, safety, comfort. Identity, memory, history. 99-year lease, freehold, 3+3+3, Master Plan.”
The Private Museum Singapore (TPM) is pleased to present 3+3+3: On Condition—a group exhibition curated by Andrea Fam. This marks the third edition of TPM’s Guest Curator Platform—collaborating with guest curators to support and experiment with independent curatorial practice through the presentation of different perspectives of our world. This interdisciplinary exhibition will feature both new and ongoing works by five artists and architects including artist duo Finbarr Fallon & Claire Goh, Geraldine Kang, Michael Lee, Mervin Loh and Isabella Teng Yen Lin.
Our governing bodies, architects, invisible labour, civilians, new and temporary residents have seamlessly infused their own histories and intimate memories into the foundational and poignant blueprints of our small island nation. Borrowing its namesake from the commercial lease agreement under the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), 3+3+3 explores these unseen psycho-spatial associations and the complexities of our urban planning while musing on the ephemeral nature of space and place-making in our land-scarce city.
Through preparatory sketches, utopian models, performative engagements and satirical ‘white papers’, this exhibition is an open-ended invitation to reflect on our ever-evolving relationships with our urban environment. Engaging our different senses, these works contemplate notions of nostalgia and transience while considering the overlooked inhabitants of Singapore.
Having served as an independent arts platform for the past 11 years, 3+3+3 marks TPM’s last exhibition in our home at 51 Waterloo Street. Such is the life of built spaces in our metropolis—though they bestow us with character, identity and heritage, we confer them with impermanence and dispensability, provocating the question, “If buildings retain the lived histories imbued into them, shouldn’t we consider their embodied human spirit?”