National Gallery Singapore, Singapore

It won't be an exaggeration to call the National Gallery Singapore the city’s grand backstage pass to Southeast Asian art—except this backstage spans two colossal national monuments and holds more than 8,000 artworks. Indeed, this is the world’s largest public collection of art from Singapore and the region, and its mission is simple enough: help visitors understand how Singapore’s artistic story connects with its neighbours and, eventually, the wider world.

The gallery lives inside the former Supreme Court and City Hall buildings, two historic giants that together cover about 64,000 square metres of floor space. With that much room to play with, it naturally became Singapore’s most expansive museum and its biggest visual arts venue—essentially a small city dedicated entirely to creativity.

Inside, the focus lands squarely on modern and contemporary art from the 19th century onward. Two permanent galleries anchor this narrative: the DBS Singapore Gallery and the UOB Southeast Asia Gallery. Together, they walk listeners through shifting cultural identities, political changes, and the many artistic experiments that emerged across the region.

At the heart of it all is Singapore’s National Collection, the world’s largest public assembly of modern and contemporary Southeast Asian art. It began modestly in 1976 with just 93 donated works from Malaysian business magnate, Dato Loke Wan Tho. By 2010, the collection had grown to roughly 8,000 pieces, now under the care of the National Heritage Board. As such, it forms the backbone of the gallery’s exhibitions and research.

Here, you'll also meet some of Singapore’s most influential artists along the way. Names like Georgette Chen, Chen Chong Swee, Chen Wen Hsi, Cheong Soo Pieng, and Liu Kang appear throughout the galleries, represented in everything from early ink paintings to bold canvases and contemporary video works. Their art charts the evolution of Singapore’s creative identity throughout the decades, offering a vivid introduction to the country’s cultural imagination.