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.
In celebration of Singapore’s 60th year of independence, The Private Museum is proud to present The Art of Lee Boon Ngan: Celebrating 60 Years of Singapore through the Love of Chua Mia Tee & Lee Boon Ngan, a landmark exhibition honouring the love and legacy of two Singaporeans who have dedicated their lives to art and nation.
While her husband, Cultural Medallion recipient Chua Mia Tee, is widely recognised for his contributions to Singapore’s national visual identity through his realist paintings, Lee remained the steadfast and quiet strength of the family as a wife and mother—while continuing to pursue her practice, and secured her spot alongside Chua as an artist in her own right. This exhibition centres her story, highlighting her unwavering commitment to her practice across decades, a profound devotion to artistic expression and excellence while finding fulfilment in her role meeting needs and nurturing familial bonds.
This exhibition is a poignant tribute to dedication and resilience, featuring rarely seen portraits of their children and grandchildren, offering a unique biographical window into the private world of a family bound by art. Alongside a selection of Chua’s renowned landscape paintings and portraits of public figures, the exhibition presents a series of Lee’s exquisite flower paintings she was widely lauded for—a visual realisation of their shared sensibilities, rooted in their passion for realist art, and a quiet reverence for our country.
From glimpses of their shared studio space to works that speak of everyday affection, this presentation harmonises two monumental figures and foregrounds the often invisible labour of love behind art. As Singapore reflects on 60 years of independence, this exhibition reminds us that nation-building is not only about grand gestures, but also the tender, often uncelebrated choices that shape lives and legacies.
This exhibition marks the third instalment in The Private Museum’s exciting lineup of programmes for 2025.
The exhibition will run from 10 July to 21 September 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.
The Private Museum (TPM) Singapore is pleased to present Dancing with the Cosmos: Three Decades of Work from Kumari Nahappan, a solo exhibition surveying prominent Singaporean artist Kumari Nahappan’s three-decade-long artistic practice, curated by John Z.W. Tung. This showcase will be the first of the museum’s upcoming line-up of programmes at its new premise, featuring over 50 works which include Nahappan’s monumental site-specific installations, paintings and sculptures, some of which are re-creations of past iterations that have not been seen by the public since the mid-1990s.
Inspired by the Hindu cosmological notion of cyclical time, Dancing with the Cosmos organises the artworks not chronologically but by colour, allowing visitors to witness the diverse yet interconnected nature of Nahappan’s practice. Nature, rituals, time and space are themes that have long been part of Nahappan’s works and are also encapsulated throughout the exhibition. Each intimate space reflects specific colours that take prominence at various periods of Nahappan’s practice, representative of a diversity of themes and a recurrence of Nahappan’s interests over an expanse of time.
Characterised by constant evolution, Nahappan’s varied employment of materiality from organic matter to man-made structures and found objects breathes new life into her pieces, allowing them to transcend two-dimensional visuality and engage with the senses on multiple levels. Immersing in Nahappan’s fields of colour, Dancing with the Cosmos: Three Decades of Work from Kumari Nahappan allows visitors to contend with the existence of these countless universes and their cycles.
The exhibition will be run from 31 August to 22 October 2023.
Download our exhibition leaflet for more information here.
Download our exhibition press release here.
In celebration of Singapore’s 48th National Day, The Private Museum presents Hong Zhu An: The Limitless Void, a solo exhibition by internationally-renowned Singapore-based artist, Hong Zhu An. This selection of paintings presents Hong at his prime: an accumulation of his training in China and his experience of living in Australia, and eventually settling in Singapore, where he has lived in for almost 20 years. Hong’s primordial source of inspiration stems from the concept of Wuji (无极), the limitless void, from the I-Ching (易经), Book of Changes. The suggestion of both stillness and movement, Yin and Yang, is a balance of contrasts, which Hong gives prominence to in his work. The highlight of this most recent body of work is the predominantly Black & White paintings, as well as the use of calligraphy, a return to Hong’s original source of inspiration. The calm and peaceful paintings bring the viewer a step closer towards a meditative state of mind.
As part of the 49th National Day Celebrations, The Private Museum presents 舞: A Goh Soo Khim Collection, an exhibition showcasing the works collected by celebrated Singaporean ballet doyenne Goh Soo Khim. She has played a significant role in the development of dance in Singapore and has always been an avid art collector.
Evocative of the beauty and raw emotion of dance, this exhibition features eleven black and white artworks and a sound piece by Singaporean artists Chen Ke Zhan (b. 1959), Chua Ek Kay (1947 – 2008), Goh Beng Kwan (b.1937), Hong Zhu An (b. 1955), Zul Mahmod (b. 1975) and China artist Wang Lin Hai (b.1963). The collection is an expression of Soo Khim’s passion for the dualism of rhythm and movement, the very essence of dance. This dichromatic exhibition encapsulates the beauty and raw emotion of dance, extending beyond the dance stage and to the world of art.
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 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 celebration of Singapore’s 54th year of independence, The Private Museum (TPM) Singapore is pleased to present Flashes of Brilliance: Selected Works of Chen Wen Hsi from the Collections of Johnny Quek and the Lewis Sisters. As part of our museum’s Collector Series, visitors will be able to view previously unseen works by the late Singaporean pioneer artist, Chen Wen Hsi.
In this special edition, the exhibition brings together two private collections, from Johnny Quek—close friend and long-time patron of Chen—and the Lewis sisters, Jennifer Lewis and Geraldine Lewis-Pereira. The selected works will be accompanied by stories from the collectors as well as rare insights into Chen’s artistic process.
Despite the relatively short history of modern Singapore, little remains today from our yesteryears. However, two things have endured: the size of our island and the brilliance of its pioneer artists. Drawing parallels to our city-state, we will be shining the spotlight on Chen’s small-scale ink works for the first time, unlike past retrospective surveys of the esteemed artist.
We invite viewers to rediscover Chen Wen Hsi through the lens of private collectors and the untold stories behind their collections.
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