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ABOUT OUR COLLECTIONS
National Gallery Singapore is home to more than 8,000 artworks from across Southeast Asia spanning the 19th century to the present. “Southeast Asia” here refers to the region encompassing Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, The Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Brunei. This unique transnational approach and collection forms the basis for the Gallery’s curatorial and research efforts to (re)write the art histories of this region.
The Gallery’s Collection comprises part of Singapore’s National Collection, managed by the National Heritage Board. The beginnings of the Gallery’s Collection can be traced to the donation of over 110 artworks in 1960 by art philanthropist Dato Loke Wan Tho. The Collection has borne witness to the changing landscape of art institutions in Singapore, with its custodianship shifting from the National Museum Art Gallery (est. 1976) to the Singapore Art Museum (est. 1996) to the Gallery (est. 2015). It encapsulates the institutions’ complex histories as well as contributions made by artists, artists’ estates and private individuals through donations.
A large selection of works in the Collection are featured in the Gallery’s two long-term exhibitions, Siapa Nama Kamu? and Between Declarations and Dreams, which respectively present expansive narratives of Singapore’s position as a crossroads of culture, and the shared and divergent artistic impulses in the region since the 19th century.
The Gallery’s Collection is further enhanced by extensive holdings of related materials in its library and archives, which are publicly accessible in the Gallery’s Rotunda Library & Archive. These resources have been built through the Gallery’s curatorial research, and are integral to our mission as a research-driven institution.
A large selection from the Gallery’s Collection and materials from the Library & Archive can be searched here under Artwork Collection, Archive Collection and Library Collection (You will be redirected to the Collections search portal).
HOW YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE
- Click here to find more information about artwork donations.
- Click here to find more information about the Art Adoption and Acquisition Programme.
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