Singapore Art Museum (SAM) is pleased to announce the appointment of pioneering interdisciplinary artist Amanda Heng to represent Singapore at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (Biennale Arte) in 2026. She will collaborate with curator Selene Yap to realise the presentation. The pairing marks the 12th presentation of the Singapore Pavilion, which is commissioned by the National Arts Council (NAC), supported by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) and organised by SAM. Biennale Arte is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious global platforms for contemporary art and will run from 9 May to 22 November 2026.

The Commissioning Panel, comprising leaders of the arts community, selected Amanda Heng for the strength and continued relevance of her decades-long practice, which reflects an ongoing dialogue between art and life, and presents new views on real-world issues with openness and introspection. Heng invited Selene Yap to curate her presentation at the Pavilion, recognising how Yap’s practice of situated, dialogic curation offers a meaningful and sensitive complement to Heng’s performative explorations of the body as a site where rituals, memory, and lived experience converge. Yap and Heng have most recently partnered to exhibit works by Heng for Presentation of Works by Benesse Prize Artists at the Benesse House Museum in Naoshima, Japan in 2024.

Eugene Tan, Co-Chair of the Commissioning Panel, Chief Executive Officer and Director of SAM, said, “Over four decades, Amanda Heng’s artistic career and contributions have critically shaped Singapore’s art history and development. Her sustained and evolving practice offers compelling ways of engaging the world through the body, performance, and lived experience. Her work resonates with the urgencies of our time while being grounded in personal truth and poetic clarity. Heng’s selection of Selene Yap as curator reflects a collaborative relationship that brings together distinct artistic and curatorial sensibilities, promising a thoughtful and resonant presentation that will shed fresh light on contemporary global concerns pertinent to today’s international art world.”

Low Eng Teong, Co-Chair of the Commissioning Panel and Chief Executive Officer of NAC, added, “Amanda Heng is a pioneering force in performance art, whose interdisciplinary practice uses the body and its movement as a universal language to create new pathways for international audiences to engage with Singapore art. As part of our continued efforts to nurture artistic excellence and support our artists on the international stage, the Singapore Pavilion at Biennale Arte serves as a vital platform for our artists to build meaningful global networks and foster cross-cultural dialogue. Together with the Commissioning Panel, we are proud to support this artistic team as they represent Singapore on the world stage in Venice next year.”

Amanda Heng is a contemporary artist whose practice spans live performance, installation, photography, and participatory art. Emerging in the late 1980s during a transformative period in Singapore’s art scene, she helped shape new modes of expression grounded in participatory works and critical reflections on modernity. Heng’s work during the late 1980s and ‘90s was concerned with live performance art that centres the body and its movement as a way of exploring identity, memory, and everyday human relations. Through her works, she engages spontaneity, vulnerability, and the subtleties of human interaction as conduits for collective reflection. This nexus between art and life continues to drive her artistic vision today and her exemplary contributions to Singapore’s art scene are recognised through the Cultural Medallion, Singapore’s highest arts accolade, which she was conferred in 2010.

Heng co-founded The Artists Village in 1988, Singapore’s first artist-run space for experimental art. She later established Women in the Arts (WITA), the country’s first women artists’ collective, questioning societal norms, creating a platform for feminist discourse and giving voice to underrepresented groups. Her significant contributions have earned her other prestigious honours, including the 12th Benesse Prize (2020) and induction into the Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame (2023).

Heng has exhibited internationally at events such as the Bangkok Art Biennale (2024), Singapore Biennale (2006, 2019), and Werkleitz Biennale, Germany (2000). She has also presented at performance art festivals including the inaugural Women’s Performance Art Festival in Osaka (2001), Tachikawa International Art Festival (2000), and the Rand Festival (1999).

Selene Yap is a curator at SAM whose practice is grounded in sustained collaborations with artists and close attention to the conditions that inform artistic production. Her curatorial approach is shaped by discursive research and long-term engagement, with a focus on artists whose works respond to the complexities of place, process, and memory. She has recently curated exhibitions on Pratchaya Phinthong (2024), Simryn Gill & Charles Lim Yi Yong (2024), Ho Tzu Nyen (2023), and Joo Choon Lin (2023). 

Singapore has participated in the Biennale Arte since 2001. Since 2015, the Singapore Pavilion has been in the Arsenale, one of the Biennale’s main exhibition venues. Past presentations have featured some of Singapore’s most significant contemporary artists, including Robert Zhao Renhui (2024), Shubigi Rao (2022), and Song-Ming Ang (2019)—each bringing critical, thought-provoking works that contribute to global dialogues in art and society.

The Singapore Pavilion will be on display at Level 2 of Arsenale – Sale d’Armi, Venice, Italy from 9th May to 22nd November 2026. Further details on the curatorial concept behind the Singapore Pavilion will be revealed in due course. Follow the latest updates via Facebook, Instagram and TikTok (@singaporeartmuseum), or visit here