During Singapore Art Week 2026, Gillman Barracks and beyond will transform into a living laboratory of ideas, images, and encounters, as Art Outreach Singapore presents an ambitious slate of exhibitions, public artworks, and conversations that invite audiences to slow down, look closer, and rethink how art shapes the way we live.

Established in 2003, Art Outreach has long played a vital role in strengthening Singapore’s art ecosystem, from championing inclusivity and plurality in contemporary practice to empowering artists and curators through education, professional development, and international exchange. An IPC charity since inception and a multiple-year recipient of the Commissioner of Charities governance award, the organisation is known for its thoughtful, people-centred approach to art-making and art-sharing.

That ethos comes fully into focus this January, as Art Outreach anchors Singapore Art Week with a constellation of projects that move fluidly between gallery spaces, rooftops, public forums, and everyday urban rhythms.

First up, Art Outreach presents Cut, Ground, a solo exhibition by Singaporean artist Ang Song Nian, on view from 16 January to 1 February 2026. Quiet and contemplative, the exhibition turns its attention to one of the city’s most familiar yet overlooked rituals: the trimming of roadside trees.

Through moving image and installation, Ang isolates a fleeting moment within this cycle of care, the release of branches, twigs, and leaves from a mechanical chipper. Removed from their functional destination as mulch, these fragments hover in suspension, reframed not as waste but as transient forms with their own material presence.

“The city is a carefully orchestrated ecosystem. I’m intrigued by the intersection of control and care, those that reveal the subtle ways we shape and are shaped by our environment,” says Ang.

By focusing on this moment between cutting and return, Cut, Ground reflects on how systems of maintenance, labour, and ecology intersect within Singapore’s meticulously managed landscape. The work mirrors broader urban rhythms — growth and erasure, renewal and return, revealing how even the most routine acts sustain the city’s lushness.

Mae Anderson, Chairman of Art Outreach Singapore, describes the exhibition as capturing “a quiet poetry in the everyday cycles that sustain our city. Through Ang Song Nian’s lens, familiar acts of maintenance become moments of reflection on care, balance, and renewal. We are proud to support this thoughtful presentation, which reminds us that art often begins in the unnoticed gestures that shape our shared environment.”

If Cut, Ground asks viewers to look inward, ANTZ’s work urges them to look up. From 16 January to 8 February 2026, the Singaporean urban artist reimagines Gillman Barracks through a multi-site activation that places monumental inflatable monkeys atop rooftops and ledges across the precinct. Drawn from his long-running Urban Monkeys series, these playful yet watchful figures perch above the city like sentinels of an imagined future — one where nature has been overtaken by concrete, and animals adapt by claiming the built environment as habitat.

“The monkeys are like us. They adapt, they survive, and they find their own space. I have drawn them for years. They remind me to stay curious and to push back a little, even when the world tries to tell you what to do,” says ANTZ.

Complementing the outdoor installations is Field Test, a pop-up studio and exhibition that brings audiences deeper into ANTZ’s creative world. Featuring sketches, studies, and new works that reimagine Singapore’s signage culture, the space reveals how symbols of control, arrows, warnings, exits, are transformed into visual narratives that provoke humour and reflection.

Colin Wan, General Manager of Art Outreach Singapore, notes, “ANTZ’s monkeys feel especially at home across the rooftops and grounds of Gillman Barracks. They respond instinctively to the site and carry his career-long interest in characters that adapt and survive. Art Outreach is proud to support this project for Singapore Art Week and help bring his work into public view. We were drawn to ANTZ’s vision because it echoes our own belief in the power of art to reflect how we live, move, and share space. These monkeys are more than characters, they represent a quiet resilience, and a way of seeing the city with curiosity and care.”

Both Cut, Ground and ANTZ anchor Gather at Gillman, a precinct-wide activation led by Art Outreach and supported by the National Arts Council. Running from 17 to 31 January 2026, the initiative transforms Gillman Barracks into a vibrant hub of coordinated exhibitions, tours, signage, and public programmes, inviting visitors to experience the precinct as a connected whole.

Alongside Art Outreach’s own presentations, galleries across Gillman Barracks will showcase a rich diversity of regional and international practices, from Balinese painting and Southeast Asian mythology to postcolonial imaginaries, climate futures, portraiture, and immersive light installations. Together, these exhibitions reaffirm Gillman Barracks’ position as a vital destination where experimentation and dialogue converge.

Mizuma Gallery presents Liminal Relic , a solo exhibition by Balinese artist Kemalezedine, curated by Asmudjo J. Irianto, which reimagines Balinese painting traditions through a contemporary lens. Yeo Workshop showcases new works by Citra Sasmita, whose practice draws on Balinese mythology to reflect on the balance between humanity and nature, centering women as keepers of ecological and spiritual harmony.

Richard Koh Fine Art features Bintang Hijau by Malaysian artist Hasanul Isyraf Idris, an intimate body of work inspired by the fragile ecosystems of Malaysia’s forest reserves. ShanghART Singapore presents a solo exhibition by Yao Qingmei, a Chinese artist based in Paris known for her performative and video works that probe social conventions with wit and subversion. NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore presents Three Acts of the Sun , a new film, performance, and print installation by Kent Chan exploring the intersections of climate futures, tropical imaginaries, and human adaptation

Expanding the conversation, Ames Yavuz stages a group exhibition featuring Srijon Chowdhury, Cian Dayrit, Tada Hengsapkul, Natalie Sasi-Organ, and Nadia Waheed, bringing together regional voices that examine land, language, and postcolonial imaginaries. Ota Fine Arts presents Destination Image by Singaporean painter Hilmi Johandi, whose fragmented visual planes reflect on nostalgia, representation, and mediated memory.

Sundaram Tagore Gallery showcases Pakistani-American artist Anila Quayyum Agha, internationally known for her immersive light installations inspired by Islamic pattern and architectural motifs. The Columns Gallery introduces Korean artist Whee in Whispers of Summer Forests , a lyrical suite of abstract paintings shaped by movement, light, and landscape. FOST Gallery presents Mirrorball: Reflections on Portraiture, a group exhibition featuring Bea Camacho, Lavender Chang, Jon Chan, Kray Chen, John Clang, and Joanne Lim, each exploring new possibilities of self-representation through diverse media.

“Gather at Gillman reflects the collective spirit of the precinct, a space where artists, galleries, and audiences meet. Through coordinated activation and artist-led projects, we hope to offer visitors an experience that is both welcoming and inspiring, one that reveals the many ways art can connect us to place, community, and imagination,” says Mae Anderson.

Extending beyond the precinct, Art Outreach also partners renowned collector and philanthropist Pierre Lorinet to present Digging Stars, a major solo exhibition by acclaimed Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama, on view from 12 January to 8 February 2026.

Mahama, known for monumental installations made from reclaimed jute sacks and found materials, presents a new suite of fabric-based works, collages, photographs, and video that trace Ghana’s material legacies of colonialism, post-colonialism, and industrialisation. His works reposition discarded materials as living archives — witnesses to histories of labour, trade, and migration that continue to shape global systems today.

“It is a privilege to support Ibrahim Mahama’s presentation in Singapore, which spans not only a major solo exhibition but also thoughtful public programming and cross-regional dialogue. His work speaks powerfully to shared histories of trade, migration and resilience, and I hope this platform will spark meaningful exchange between audiences in Singapore and beyond,” says Pierre Lorinet.

Mae Anderson adds, “Art Outreach is proud to support this landmark presentation of Ibrahim Mahama in Singapore. As project manager and community partner, we are committed to delivering an experience that is not only artistically significant but also publicly engaging. Through a constellation of programmes spanning youth outreach, collector education, and artistic dialogue, we aim to open up new ways of seeing and relating to the world around us through contemporary art.”

Art Outreach’s commitment to dialogue and professional growth comes to the fore with Basecamp 2026, a public symposium held on 24 January 2026 at Marina Bay Sands. Anchored by Mahama, the programme brings together global voices to explore the role of art in shaping space, memory, and society.

The symposium opens with a performance lecture by Mahama, followed by a panel titled Placemaking: Artist-Centred Spaces in a Changing World, featuring international leaders from Europe, Africa, and beyond. Together, they examine how artists and cultural practitioners build resilient spaces for creation and exchange amid rapid change.

Running alongside this is the Art Outreach Summit 2026, a by-invitation professional development programme for emerging and mid-career artists and curators. Now in its second edition, the Summit convenes a select cohort with an international faculty that includes Ho Tzu Nyen, Alessio Antoniolli, Dr. Zoe Butt, Dr. Sook-Kyung Lee, Dr. Adele Tan, and Dr. Zoé Whitley.

“The Summit was conceived as a space where emerging practitioners can exchange ideas with leading voices in the field. In its second edition, we are proud to see it gather momentum as a platform that bridges practice and policy, creativity and leadership. By fostering meaningful dialogue across disciplines and geographies, we aim to strengthen the professional fabric of our art ecosystem and affirm Singapore’s role as a convening point for cultural leadership in the region,” says Mae Anderson.

Across exhibitions, rooftops, symposium halls, and public spaces, Art Outreach’s Singapore Art Week 2026 programme reflects a singular belief: that art is not separate from daily life, but deeply entwined with how cities grow, adapt, and remember. Whether through the quiet churn of a tree chipper, inflatable monkeys watching from above, or conversations that stretch across continents, Art Outreach invites audiences to encounter art not as spectacle alone, but as a way of seeing and caring for the world we share.

More information on events available at their website here