Singapore Art Museum (SAM) has announced the opening of a new collection gallery at Tanjong Pagar Distripark as the museum continues to expand its growing collection of contemporary art. With a focus on broadening perspectives on global art practices from the region’s viewpoint, the SAM Collection encompasses artworks from Southeast Asia and the world to provide deeper reflections on our world today through tracing the development of art in contemporary life and society. The opening of this new collection space marks SAM’s dedication to showcasing the depth and breadth of our research, enabled by the museum’s collection. 

The inaugural collection show that marks the launch of the new space will comprise various media, geographies, and subjects that capture the ever-evolving pulse of contemporary artistic expressions, including recently donated works by prominent collector Hallam Chow, underscoring SAM’s active engagement with donors in expanding its collection in recent years. With the new collection gallery, SAM remains committed to presenting, researching and collecting artworks that represent the materials and means of our times; developing new narratives of and on the region as situated in the global environment, while providing points of entry to thinking about artworks and practices that reflect our contemporary conditions. 

Scheduled for annual rotations, the exhibitions in the collection gallery will bring forth perspectives that build on its previous cycles, expounding on thematic concerns. It is intended that the annual refresh will each illuminate topical strands emerging from its preceding show and in cumulation, create a web of knowledge presented through the unique perspectives of artists from Singapore, the region, and around the world.

Eugene Tan, Director of SAM, says, “At SAM, we constantly strive to grow a distinct and diverse collection with significant works from Singapore, the region, and internationally that reflect contemporary practices today. While SAM’s collection is pivoted on Southeast Asian perspectives, its outlook is global. Donations by distinguished profiles engage acutely with the contemporary and we hope that the new collection gallery will provide SAM with greater opportunities to demonstrate the possibilities and potential of art for our society; while encouraging active participation in interpreting and defining art of the present.”

This year, SAM has received a donation of four works from collector Hallam Chow, lawyer, International Partner at Haiwen & Partners, and a steadfast supporter of the arts. A valuable building block to SAM’s growing international contemporary collection, the artworks provide insight into the interconnectedness of Southeast Asia with the rest of the world, drawn from critical artistic practices and interests and discourses of contemporary art. 

Chow’s recent donation to SAM is the highest-valued donation that SAM has received thus far. The donation includes works from eminent Asian artists such as Sun Xun’s Beyond-ism (2008-2010), Nishio Yasuyuki’s Coronation for Vacuum I (2010), Tehching Hsieh’s One Year Performance (1978-1979) and The Propeller Group’s Collision: Urban Sporty Mover (2012). Among the donations from Chow, Hsieh’s One Year Performance, and Collision: Urban Sporty Mover will be showcased at the upcoming collection show in the new gallery. 

“I thank SAM for this opportunity to find the perfect home for part of my Asian art collection and to share my passion with art lovers worldwide.” says Chow. “I hope that this donation may plant the seed for future donations by other collectors so that our love for art may be shared with Singaporeans and visitors to Singapore.”

Other significant donors who contributed works to the SAM Collection include Sameer Sain, CEO and Co-Founder of Everstone Group. His donation of Subodh Gupta’s Hungry God (2005-2006) is a welcome addition as the museum’s collection expands its acquisition approach to include South Asian contemporary works. The work will be unveiled at SAM’s new collection gallery in 2025. Additionally, Haryanto Adikoesoemo, founder of Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum MACAN) in Jakarta, has donated Keith Haring’s Untitled (1985) to SAM’s ever-growing collection. 

These works contribute to the varied narratives of art from the region and provide SAM the opportunity to include in its collection representative works by internationally acclaimed artists such as Tehching Hsieh, Subodh Gupta and Keith Haring which have inspired younger generations of artists in different ways. Through the generous donations from patrons of such significant works, often less accessible for display, SAM will now be able to pivot significant moments in global contemporary art practices with artistic developments in the region and offer diverse viewpoints in the varied narratives examined in its collection, making them accessible to audiences in Singapore and the region.

The new collection gallery will open on Level 3 at Block 39 Tanjong Pagar Distripark with its inaugural exhibition in September 2024. More information will be shared closer to the date. Stay up to date with updates on their website