In a city that prides itself on speed, efficiency, and forward momentum, slowing down to feel can be a radical act. This January, Prestige Gallery Singapore invites audiences to do exactly that with Cry Now, a group exhibition running from 10 January to 22 February 2026 at Tanjong Pagar Distripark.

Opening during Singapore Art Week, Cry Now is a showcase of sensitivity and exploration of emotion, vulnerability, and our increasingly fragile relationship with the natural world. Curated by Kenneth Liu Chenhao, the exhibition brings together seven artists from across Asia, Australia, and the United States, each responding to the idea of “crying” not as weakness, but as awareness.

The title Cry Now flips the familiar saying “laugh now, cry later” on its head. Instead of deferring emotional reckoning, the exhibition insists on immediacy. Crying, in this context, becomes a form of honesty—an instinctive response to what we sense is wrong, whether in our inner lives or in the world around us. It asks: What happens when we stop numbing ourselves to discomfort? When we allow emotion to guide attention rather than suppress it?

This emotional lens extends beyond the personal into the ecological. As climate change, habitat loss, and environmental degradation increasingly appear as distant data points or alarming headlines, the exhibition suggests that emotional detachment from ourselves may mirror our growing distance from nature. By reconnecting with feelings of grief, tenderness, and care, we may also rediscover responsibility.

In today’s hyper-connected, fast-moving urban life, emotions are often flattened, edited, or postponed. Cry Now pushes back against this pace. The works on view encourage viewers to slow down and notice small shifts: material textures, organic forms, repeated gestures, and subtle transformations.

Rather than delivering a single message or moral stance, the exhibition unfolds as a contemplative space. Viewers are invited to move quietly between oil paintings, glass installations, ceramics, sculpture, sound, and mixed-media works, each offering a different entry point into the shared themes of fragility, growth, and interdependence.

The exhibition features a diverse group of artists whose practices span geography and medium, yet converge in their attentiveness to nature and lived experience. Singaporean glass artist Tan Sock Fong presents newly created large-scale installations that explore fragility, transformation, and marine ecology, while fellow Singaporean Teo Huey Ling works in ceramics, using repetition and biomorphic forms to evoke natural rhythms and material memory.

From China, Chen Chunmu contributes works that draw on memory, organic growth, and immersive ecological environments. Desmond Mah, a Singaporean Australian artist based in Perth, blends figurative painting and sculpture with satire and narrative, observing social and environmental tensions through a personal lens.

Los Angeles–based Taiwanese American artist Pearl C. Hsiung introduces vivid, exceptionally large-scale works from a new series addressing ongoing ecological concerns, while Bali-based Japanese artist Kanoko Takaya creates tactile mixed-media pieces using eco-materials that appeal to the senses. Rounding out the group, Singapore-based Chinese artist Rick Shi paints on reclaimed wood, examining relationships between humans, animals, and food systems.

Together, their works form a quiet, powerful dialogue that connects emotion to environment without resorting to alarmism. Importantly, Cry Now doesn’t stop at contemplation. The exhibition is presented in partnership with The International SeaKeepers Society Asia, a global non-profit dedicated to ocean research, conservation, and education. As part of this collaboration, 10% of all artwork sales will support SeaKeepers Asia’s marine conservation initiatives, translating artistic reflection into tangible environmental action.

Complementing the exhibition is a series of forums and talks held during Singapore Art Week, bringing together artists, curators, environmental researchers, and industry voices. These conversations aim to bridge culture, sustainability, and philanthropy, showing how art can also function as a catalyst.

Visitors can also engage with Cry Now through an AI-powered Smart Audio Guide by ARTLAS, designed to make contemporary art more accessible. Available in over 20 languages, the guide offers personalised storytelling based on visitors’ interests and time, accessible via QR code. Whether snapping photos of artworks to unlock narratives or following curated audio journeys, the experience is designed to be intuitive, flexible, and free.

In the end, Cry Now is not about despair. It is about transformation. It suggests that vulnerability can be a strength, that attention can be an act of care, and that acknowledging what we feel may be the first step toward meaningful change. In a world that constantly urges us to move on, Cry Now gently asks us to pause, look closely, and feel deeply. Sometimes, that may be exactly what’s needed.

Cry Now runs from 10th January to 22nd February 2026 at Prestige Gallery Singapore. More information available here