If you think printmaking is all etchings and editions locked behind glass, Singapore Art Week 2026 is about to change your mind.

This January, STPI launches The Print Show & Symposium Singapore, a first-of-its-kind regional platform that places prints firmly back at the centre of contemporary culture. Running from 22 to 31 January 2026, the inaugural edition brings together blockbuster names, radical thinkers, and a surprisingly accessible way to engage with art, whether you’re a seasoned collector or simply curious.

Timed with Singapore Art Week, the two-part initiative unfolds as both a visually rich exhibition and a provocative symposium that asks big questions about politics, reproduction, and how images circulate in our digital age.

Hosted at STPI’s riverside space at Robertson Quay, The Print Show gathers works by 27 internationally renowned artists whose practices stretch the boundaries of printmaking.

Expect to encounter household names such as Jeff Koons, Louise Bourgeois, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Takashi Murakami, alongside influential figures such as Tacita Dean, Chris Ofili, Julie Mehretu, Do Ho Suh, and Rirkrit Tiravanija. Regional voices also take centre stage, including Kim Lim, Dinh Q. Lê, Hilmi Johandi, and Natee Utarit.

Rather than a conventional survey, the exhibition is conceived as a dialogue: between generations, geographies, and approaches to print. The result is a deeper look at how artists use the medium not just to reproduce images, but to experiment, provoke, and transform ideas.

Behind the scenes, some of the world’s most respected print publishers and galleries are involved, from Two Palms and Crown Point Press in the US to BORCH Editions, Cristea Roberts, Ota Fine Arts, de Sarthe, and Richard Koh Fine Art. For collectors, this means museum-grade works at a range of price points; for everyone else, it’s a rare chance to see prints treated with the same seriousness as painting or sculpture. Best of all – admission is free.

If the exhibition is about looking, the Symposium is about thinking and debating. Titled The Politics of Print: elephant in the room, the two-day programme (23–24 January) brings together 25 influential voices, from museum directors and curators to artists and market leaders. The conversations move from the history of print as a political tool to its contemporary afterlives in NFTs, memes, and digital reproduction.

Highlights include a keynote conversation with Michael Craig-Martin and Pinaree Sanpitak on print as a core artistic practice; panels on new print markets featuring leaders from Sotheby’s, IFPDA, and Avant Arte; a deep dive into radical printmaking in Asia, from Nepalese artist journals to Gwangju Biennale woodcuts; Crit Club, a performative debate staged like a sports tournament by the artist behind Instagram favourite @freeze_magazine, tackling NFTs, memes, and value in the digital era; and a closing keynote with Pakistani artist and activist Salima Hashmi, moderated by Rirkrit Tiravanija.

It’s ambitious, occasionally confrontational, and refreshingly unafraid to ask uncomfortable questions—exactly what a symposium should be.

Print has quietly become one of the most dynamic areas of contemporary art: democratic in spirit, adaptable in form, and increasingly relevant in a world of endless reproduction. As STPI Executive Director Emi Eu puts it, the new platform is both a celebration and an invitation to look, learn, and collect.

For Singapore and visitors, the launch positions the city not just as a hub for fairs and auctions, but as a place where serious conversations about art’s past, present, and future can unfold, and a reminder that some of the most powerful art will keep reproducing itself, over and over again.

The Print Show & Symposium Singapore 2026 runs from 22nd to 31st January 2026 at STPI, Robertson Quay & Mohamed Sultan Road. The exhibition is free, while ticket sot the symposium can be purchased from SISTIC