The Private Museum is pleased to present Shadows, Signals, and the Line: Abstract Expressionism in Singapore. The exhibition explores the development of abstraction in Singapore, bringing together works by sixteen Singaporean artists working in that visual language, and chronicling their responses to the cultural and material conditions of a rapidly modernising nation.
The exhibition title recognises abstraction not as a fixed style, but a negotiation between influence and invention, clarity and ambiguity. As a sensibility grounded in subtlety, tactility, and the quiet resonance of form, the line becomes both gesture and structure, and shadow sharpens perception.
Emerging in the 1970s and 80s, abstraction in Singapore developed in dialogue with both regional legacies and international movements. Building on the foundations of the Nanyang school, artists moved beyond representation to explore form, gesture, and material as primary carriers of meaning, engaging global influences while reconfiguring them within local contexts.
Through works informed by calligraphic gesture, geometric discipline, and material sensitivity, the exhibition highlights the diverse approaches that have shaped abstraction in Singapore. It invites viewers to consider how abstraction is inseparable from cultural thinking and lived experience—where form carries memory, and meaning unfolds through the act of looking.
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The exhibition will run from 29 May to 23 August 2026.
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.
The Private Museum Singapore is pleased to present Déjà Vu: When the Sun Rises in the West, an evocative exhibition featuring the works of renowned Thai artist Natee Utarit. In continuation of the first exhibition at Silpakorn University in 2022 commemorating the artist’s return to his alma mater, this historic exhibition now journeys to Singapore, bringing with it a new myriad of selections from local and regional private collections.
Initiated in 2019, the Déjà Vu series proposes an alternative interpretation of history by reframing Western classical knowledge alongside Eastern and Buddhist concepts. This exhibition presents a hypothesis of a reimagined space and time, encouraging the audience to consider scenarios of “what if”—how different historical events might have altered our socio-cultural present. The Déjà Vu series draws inspiration from the artist’s experience in Naples, where a chance encounter with a marble sculpture at the Museo Archeologico sparked a profound connection. This moment of Déjà vu merged memories of Thailand’s Walking Buddha with the classical Western figure, leading the artist to probe further into the intersections between Eastern and Western cultures.
Natee Utarit’s exploration through the series is deeply personal, yet it resonates with universal themes of memory, identity, and culture. Through a diverse array of mediums—including painting, sculpture, embroidery, stained glass, and woodcut—the works serve as a reminder that history is not linear, but cyclical; that the past, present, and future are constantly intertwined in ways that shape our perceptions of the world. By challenging the boundaries of historical plausibility, the exhibition offers viewers a space to consider the possibilities that emerge when traditional narratives are turned on their heads, symbolically represented by the paradoxical notion of the sun rising in the west.
Déjà vu: When the Sun Rises in the West is the final instalment of The Private Museum’s 2024 programming—offering a fitting closure to a year of diverse artistic and cultural exploration. The exhibition is presented in collaboration with Richard Koh Fine Art.
The exhibition will be run from 18 October to 8 December 2024.
Download our exhibition leaflet for more information here.
Download our exhibition press release here.
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.
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.
Thoughts of Gulag is a solo exhibition by Singapore-based, British artist James Holdsworth. The show is supported by the United Nations Association (UNAS), and features 13 large oil paintings, together with charcoal & pastel drawings based on images taken from labour camps. Gulag is a term used to refer to the Soviet government agency that operated the forced labour and concentration camps during the communist era.
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 exhibition which showcases the Catholic High School’s special collection of paintings by the late local artist, Chua Ek Kay, who is an old boy of the school. He is known for his combination of both Eastern and Western art techniques and theories in his works. A special selection from the Catholic High School will be featured in this exhibition with subject matters ranging from traditional Chinese paintings of birds and flowers, to old buildings and abstractions which reflects the evolution of Ek Kay’s artistic practice. The highlight of this exhibition will be the display of four Chinese ink paintings of the former Catholic High School campus at 222 Queens Street, now 51 Waterloo Street. Coincidentally, this is where The Private Museum is currently located. Ek Kay painted these works in 2005 with the sole purpose of donating them to the school and its new campus in Bishan. Ek Kay donated more works to the school subsequently, totaling to an impressive number of twenty-five Chinese ink paintings.
The Private Museum is proud to present The Loss Index: Perishables and other Miscellanea by Singaporean artist, Ye Shufang, following the success of her previous exhibition, The Happiness Index, here in 2011. Shufang has created a series of new watercolour drawings and will also re-present her internationally-renowned agar-agar installations for the last time.
With an ongoing research focus on the ephemeral and the ‘ready-made’ from her 17 years of art practice, Shufang’s current series of drawings are an attempt to measure, categorise and understand a miscellany of vast infinite items, from baking moulds to emotions, classified in a system using grids, circles and colour spectrums. In her past artworks, the study of and the attempt to measure and record the impermanent are manifested in installations that adopt basic processes, ephemeral materials and ready-mades. Aside from the 2 new presentations of her past agar-agar installations, Shufang will also be showing an agar-agar and rubber strips installation for the first time.
In celebration of Singapore’s 50th anniversary of independence, The Private Museum is proud to present Influences and Friendships: A Chua Ek Kay Estate Collection. This special body of works offers a glimpse into Chua Ek Kay’s lesser-known art collection of prominent artists and friends, with 21 artworks in Chinese ink and Calligraphy, Oil and Woodcarving that reflects the inspirations and artists that influenced Chua in his artistic practice.
Highlights include Huang Binhong’s landscape painting paying its homage to the 10th century painter Juran, one of the great Master artists of early Chinese monumental landscape paintings. Huang Binhong (1865 – 1955), a painter and art theorist, was one of Chua’s biggest influences. Inspired by the endless possibilities of ink, Chua fervently explored the extent of his brushworks. The collection of works traces Chua’s Shanghai School lineage from Wu Changshuo (1844-1927), Wang Ge Yi (1897-1988) and Fan Chang Tien (1907-1987), and a combination of monk artists, Lingnan School and Chua’s contemporaries.
Through the visions from these artists and friends, the viewer is able to reach into the window of his art practice. The intertwining of creativities from around the world allowed Chua to create his inimitable style that incorporates a balance of both Western and traditional.
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 conjunction with Singapore Art Week 2017, The Private Museum is proud to present 21st Century Calligraphy: Selections from the Nanshun Shanfang Collection. The exhibition features 19 Chinese calligraphy works from 5 established Chinese calligraphers such as Wang Dongling, Sun Xiaoyun, Wang Tiande, Wei Ligang, and Guan Jun.
Wang Dongling’s artworks illuminate the essence of gestural abstraction through his bold experimentations of embodied action and performance in Chinese calligraphy. Wang Tiande’s artistic practice explores the ambivalent relation between contemporaneity and the traditional. Wei Ligang’s background in mathematics contributes to his unique approach of the deconstruction and re-construction of Chinese characters in his artworks. Sun Xiaoyun’s emphasis on her brushstrokes and aesthetics, along with Guan Jun’s neoclassical style, portray distinctive interpretations of historical transcripts by renowned Chinese poets such as Du Fu and Su Dong Po.
Viewers will gain the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the wide array of calligraphy styles-reflective of their various artistic development and practices in breaking the conventional approach of Chinese calligraphy-displayed through this collection.
In celebration of Singapore’s 52nd anniversary of independence, The Private Museum is proud to present Benny Ong: Walking the Thought. This solo exhibition marks the first showcase of works by the renowned fashion designer and textile artist, Benny Ong at The Private Museum.
Along with other textile works centred on Buddhist themes, the exhibition revisits a series of Ong’s older works from his inaugural textile exhibition titled, Re-woven: A Celebration of Lives opened at the Singapore Arts Museum a decade ago. Ong’s artistic practice traces back to the roots of his spiritual. The body of textile works is a reflection of the artist’s interpretation of the Buddha’s teachings based on inner contemplation, peace, dualism, compassion and meditation.
Although the series of textile works was inspired by the values and teachings of Buddhism, the exhibition reveals a deeper layer of Ong’s artistic practice. Through the use of succinct imagery, Ong bridges his spiritual beliefs with art making— compelling the viewer to get a closer glimpse of the thought process behind his artistic practice.
In conjunction with Singapore Art Week 2019, The Private Museum is pleased to present Of Dreams and Contemplation: Selections from the Collection of Richard Koh. As part of The Private Museum’s Collector Platform, this exhibition features contemporary works of international artists from the private art collection of veteran gallerist, Richard Koh of Richard Koh Fine Art.
Presented as a whole for the first time, this is the inaugural showcase of 33 carefully-selected artworks from Koh’s collection spanning more than 20 years. A gallerist by profession, Koh’s distinctive way of collecting is informed by his quiet reflection and interactions with the art world. This collection is an exploration of his journey in the world of art and life, in public and in private, within Southeast Asia and internationally.
Of Dreams and Contemplation reflects a multitude of Koh’s ruminations, personalities and interests through the works of 30 artists. Often referred by Koh as ‘Landscapes of Memory’, each work evokes a specific memory, a tangible reminder of a fleeting moment in his life. Mostly abstract and monochromatic, the works offer rare insights into Richard Koh’s private contemplations—inviting the viewer to interpret and delve deeper.
The Private Museum (TPM) Singapore is pleased to present Silhouettes: Collecting Singapore Modern – Selections from the Collection of Su-Yen Wong and Fermin Diez. As part of TPM’s 10th anniversary celebrations, the museum revisits its foundation of bridging the private and the public; this exhibition is the second in a series of five featuring an array of private collections in Singapore.
Initiated in 2007, the couple’s private collection of selected artworks by first- and second-generation Singapore artists is laser-focused, involving careful deliberation and intensive research. The collection allows viewers a glimpse of everyday life in Singapore in its early decades of growth and development.
The exhibition features select modern masterpieces by the likes of Cheong Soo Pieng, Chua Mia Tee, Lim Cheng Hoe and more. These paintings capture the places and people from a bygone time, the snippets and silhouettes of an idyllic Singapore now past.
In response to the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation, we have launched a virtual experience of the exhibition as part of our commitment to bringing art closer to you, the public and our patrons, in the comfort of your homes. Experience the online exhibition here: https://theprivatemuseum.wixsite.com/silhouettes