December 2026
Nothing big opens in December, so this is the month to catch what is leaving. The Louvre's Mughal, Safavid and Ottoman loans at the Asian Civilisations Museum go home in January, as does the Science Centre's ONE Ocean. December's monsoon rain keeps Catherine Hu's bird baths in the CBD working as fountains.
Asian Civilisations MuseumUntil 24 January
A jade cup set with gold and Myanmar rubies once belonged to Louis XIV at Versailles. Around 100 Louvre pieces hang beside 30 of ACM's own, arguing that Southeast Asian makers reworked Mughal, Safavid and Ottoman forms in local materials.
National Gallery SingaporeUntil 3 October 2027
Three strangers share a boat on still water, and only the woman in red looks back at you. Lai Foong Moi's first solo show since the 1960s paints Singapore quiet: a trishaw puller playing a nose flute on his break.
Science Centre SingaporeUntil 3 January
Turn a wheel and a drop of water sets off on a current that takes nearly a thousand years to circle the planet. Built on 20 years of Tara Ocean expeditions, and pitched at children from five.
Singapore Art MuseumFree
Concrete pineapples line the planters of Shenton House, and Catherine Hu's tiled bird baths at One Raffles Quay only become a fountain when it rains. Five outdoor works scattered between Raffles Place and Shenton Way, open at all hours.
NUS MuseumFree
The spout of Ng Eng Teng's 1962 "Head" Teapot is a mouth with what Plural Art Mag calls a "freakishly long tongue"; the handle is a ponytail. Plural called the selection "small but well-chosen", set among pottery shards in a library room.
NUS MuseumUntil 2 January
Historian Kwa Chong Guan's grandmother called these plates "Shanghai crockery", after the port they shipped from. 435 enamelled pieces painted in Jingdezhen for Straits Chinese weddings, altars and birthdays, thick with phoenixes and peonies.
NUS MuseumFree
435 polychrome Straits Chinese export ceramics donated by Alice and Peter Tan, spanning 19th-century Qing kilns to Peranakan tableware and ceremonial wares.
Science Centre Singapore
World-premiere immersive exhibition built on 20 years of Tara Ocean Foundation research, with 360-degree ocean projections, free-roaming VR and ten walk-through zones.
Asian Civilisations Museum
100 Islamic-art masterpieces from the Louvre alongside 30 ACM works, tracing the 16th-18th century world connecting the Mughal, Safavid and Ottoman empires with Southeast Asia.
Singapore Art Museum
Final chapter of the Lost & Found project, using language, oral histories and personal-to-collective narratives to recover overlooked stories.
NUS MuseumFree
Revisits sculptor Ng Eng Teng's fascination with the human head as a fragment, from early realist portraits to later abstracted forms, ahead of the Ng Eng Teng Gallery's revamp.
Singapore Art Museum
A hands-on gallery for exploring contemporary art through curiosity, with works by five artists touching identity, home, nature and memory. Free admission.
NUS MuseumFree
While NUS Baba House undergoes restoration, its Straits Chinese furniture, decorative arts and architectural fragments are regrouped and displayed in a new setting at NUS Museum.
National Gallery Singapore
A Dalam Singapore focus exhibition on Nanyang artist Lai Foong Moi (1931-1995), examining gender, labour and urban life in 1960s Singapore and Malaya through portraiture, still life and landscape.
Singapore Art Museum
Public outdoor commissions by Singapore-based artists tucked into the CBD's streets and passageways, exploring the district's layered history and rhythms.
A short note now and then when something new opens worth your time.
