Something New Must Turn Up: Six Singaporean Artists After 1965

Something New Must Turn Up: Six Singaporean Artists After 1965 is the first joint exhibition to explore and compare the artistic practices of six Singaporean artists: Chng Seok Tin, Goh Beng Kwan, Jaafar Latiff, Lin Hsin Hsin, Mohammad Din Mohammad and Eng Tow. As artistic forerunners in post-independence Singapore, they actively expanded the boundaries of art through experimentations in diverse media ranging from collage to printmaking, installation, batik, cloth works and digital art.

Each of the six sections will trace the individual journeys that these artists undertook as they strove to be continuously “new” while critically engaging with the conditions of multiculturalism, developmentalism and modernisation in post-independence Singapore.

When: 07 May 2021–22 Aug 2021
Where: Level 3, Singtel Special Exhibition Gallery, City Hall Wing

“Strictly speaking, Realism has passed its golden age; Impressionism has done its duty; Fauvism and Cubism are declining. Something new must turn up to succeed the unfinished task left by our predecessors. Any attempt to recover past glory shall be in vain, because history will not repeat. The social background and thoughts of the past ages have no similarity with that of the present days. We can only repeat old stories on stage, but never in real life.” – Ho Ho Ying, 1963 inaugural Modern Art Society exhibition catalogue.

Something New Must Turn Up: Six Singaporean Artists After 1965, is a joint exhibition of six solo presentations that explores the diverse artistic practices of six post-independence Singaporean artists: Chng Seok Tin (莊心珍), Goh Beng Kwan (吴珉权), Jaafar Latiff, Lin Hsin Hsin (林欣欣), Mohammad Din Mohammad (محمد دین محمد) and Eng Tow (杜瑛).

This exhibition offers an in-depth and comparative examination of how these artistic innovators broke new ground and contributed significantly to the development of Singapore’s modern and contemporary art in the post-independence era.

Featuring over 300 artworks and more than 100 archival materials and objects spanning across decades and disciplines from collage, printmaking and installations, to batik, cloth and digital art, the show provides a rich visual experience that demonstrates the breadth and depth of the artistic practices of post-independence Singaporean artists.

Exhibitions

Each of the six exhibitions will trace the individual journeys that these artists undertook as they strove to be continuously “new” in post-independence Singapore. Click on each artist below to find out more.