Our favourite art events and exhibitions in 2020

Before everything went downhill, at least momentarily, Singapore Art Week took over the city with more than 100 visual art exhibitions from January 11 to 19 this year. Little did we know then that it would be one of the last major events to be successfully executed before Singapore's nation-wide lockdown. 

From Singapore Arts Club's biggest pop-up art takeover in a warehouse at 2 Cavan Road to site-specific installations at State of Motion 2020: Rushes of Time and of course, crowd favourite Light to Night Festival, this year's edition packed a punch – and we can't wait to see what Singapore Art Week 2021 has in store. Want a sneak peek? Check out our event listing here. 

National Arts Council's Arts In Your Neighbourhood brought culture to everyday spaces this year, putting a spotlight on the vibrant 'hoods of Bukit Panjang in March and Kallang and Geylang in November. Keeping up with the times, the latest edition offered digital offerings for the very first time in AYN history, with a mix of 11 digital and physical programmes co-created with artists, art organisations and community partners. 

Our personal favourite? An epic light projection and sound display that illuminated the facade of the famous Old Airport Road Hawker Centre. Dreamt up by local audiovisual collective SYNDICATE, the light projection featured works by Cherry Chan, Heider Ismail, Safuan Johari, and William Chan, co-created with hawkers and residents of Kallang and inspired by the patterns and motifs of daily Singaporean life.

On June 26, museums finally opened their doors to the public again after being closed for months. National Museum of Singapore, National Gallery Singapore and Asian Civilisations Museum were the first to open, followed by Indian Heritage Centre, Malay Heritage Centre and Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall re-opening a week later. If there's one thing we've learnt this year, it's that artists and cultural institutions are definitely essential in keeping society sane. 

Collectively, the 'circuit breaker' was a rough period we probably never want to relive again. But as the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining. For 170 artists in Singapore, the period of isolation was used to create art inspired by real-life events. In August, National Gallery Singapore and Singapore Art Museum joined forces with ten other local art institutions and independent art spaces for a large-scale collaboration in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

A highlight is two exhibitions at National Gallery Singapore, An Exercise of Meaning in a Glitch Season and Time Passes. Helmed by independent curators and spotlighting works of established and emerging local contemporary artists, the two exhibitions marked the first time many of the artists have their works showcased at the Gallery. So here's hoping it's the first of many more to come. 

In another first, the Art Galleries Association Singapore (AGAS) presented the inaugural edition of Singapore Gallery Weekend from November 20 to 22. It was held as a three-day open house involving 30 galleries across the country and comprising a myriad of new exhibitions, artworks, artist talks, events, performances and more – both physically and in the virtual space. 

Photography lovers were in for a visual treat when the Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF) returned for its 7th edition this year. Prominent art spaces across the city – including 37 Emerald Hill, ArtScience Museum, Deck, Esplanade Tunnel and even various Downtown Line MRT stations – have been activated for this large scale event. 

A number of exhibitions were strong contenders for the best art exhibitions this year, but this one's probably one of our favourites. For the first time in two decades, Chen's work is presented as part of a major retrospective for National Gallery Singapore's fifth anniversary. Georgette Chen: At Home In The World features her most significant works alongside a wealth of newly discovered archival materials. 

The large-scale survey features 69 prominent works and 74 archival materials of one of Singapore's most celebrated modern artists. There are nine thematic sections that take visitors on an immersive journey through Chen's life and artistic practice, featuring her most significant paintings accompanied by five showcases featuring letters, photographs, documents and newspaper articles.

The exhibition's running until September 26, 2021, so make your way down if you haven't already. 

We're ending the year on a high note with the recent announcement of the 2020 Cultural Medallion and Young Artist Awards Recipients. In case you haven't heard, Sarkasi Said and Dr. Vincent Leow are this year's recipients of the prestigious Cultural Medallion Award; while Dr. Yanyun Chen, Irfan Kasban, Nicole Midori Woodford and Sushma Soma have been conferred as the Young Artist Awards Recipients. We're definitely excited to see what these young names have in store for Singapore's art landscape in the near future.