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Maria Taniguchi: Afterimage exhibition

Singapore Art MuseumTanjong Pagar

Maria Taniguchi: Afterimage

Last chance24 July 2026 – 22 November 2026Ticketed, see website

Taniguchi's first monographic show, built around her hand-drawn "brick paintings", plus new sculpture and video exploring repetition, time and labour.

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Up close, the "brick paintings" stop looking printed. Each canvas, some several metres tall, is covered in rectangles drawn in pencil, then painted one at a time over days, weeks or months. On a walkthrough the curator told visitors to get close: "no two rectangles are exactly the same." Taniguchi trained as a sculptor, and she leans many of the canvases against the walls instead of hanging them.

You start with the films. Figure Study (2012) watches two workers dig clay out of a Philippine jungle for 37 minutes. Then come the brick paintings and Runaways, tall circles and lines carved from Java plum wood. The shop sells a 500-piece jigsaw based on the paintings, which is the weekend version of her job.

Bakchormeeboy called it "a quiet exhibition that slowly draws you in and earns it." It's in Gallery 3, Level 3, open 10am to 7pm daily, free for Singaporeans and PRs, general admission for others. A curator tour runs on 21 November, the day before it closes.

Look for

  • The brick paintings

    Look for the slight shifts in colour across a single canvas of hand-painted rectangles, each one recording the days or weeks spent on that stretch.

  • Runaways (2026)

    Towering circles and straight lines carved from duhat (Java plum) wood, made for Gallery 3 and placed so they steer your route through the room.

  • Mies 421 (2010)

    Black-and-white stills of the Barcelona Pavilion's details change in time with a metronome that keeps getting faster.

  • Figure Study (2012)

    Two workers dig clay out of the jungle in black and white, and you hear the irregular knock of their tools.

  • A painter, if black were a place (2026)

    Pixelated photos of her mother's home, garden and paintings, cut with fields of black that Taniguchi painted by hand.

Good for

  • Going Solo
  • Locals Who've Seen It All

Skip if

You want bright colour: the paintings are grids of black and grey built by slow repetition.

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