Singapore Art Museum will headline Singapore Art Week 2026 with the Singapore debut of Sonic Shaman 2026: Borderless, alongside new exhibitions and public art programmes across the city.

Details:
Dates: 22 to 31 January 2026
Opening Hours: 10 am to 7 pm
Extended Hours: 10 am to 9 pm on 23, 24, 30 and 31 January 2026
Venue: SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark and various locations in Singapore
Admission: Free throughout SAW 2026

Singapore Art Week (SAW) at Singapore Art Museum (SAM) returns with a fresh slate of art experiences and a landmark international sound festival, activating both the museum and city with bold and exciting artistic presentations in 2026. Leading the first weekend is the Singapore debut of Sonic Shaman 2026: Borderless – a large-scale gathering of experimental sound, performance and contemporary art presented with TheCube Project Space (Taipei), bringing global and regional artists into a shared sonic encounter.

Opening a week ahead of SAW, Elia Nurvista and Bagus Pandega: Nafasan Bumi ~ An Endless Harvest presents works examining Indonesia’s extractive economies and evolving material futures. SAW 2026 will also see the launch of Momentary Pulses: Art in the Central Business District, a new public art trail that reveals the unseen rhythms of the Central Business District (CBD).

Visitors can also enjoy family-friendly activities, live programmes across SAM, and free access to all exhibitions including Singapore Biennale 2025: pure intention, as the Biennale unfolds across the city with tours and special programmes during SAW.

Sonic Shaman 2026: Borderless – Singapore Debut

Making its Singapore debut, Sonic Shaman 2026: Borderless is an international sound festival that brings together experimental sound, performance and contemporary art. Conceived as a cross-cultural platform for artistic exchange, it convenes more than 20 local and international artists, musicians and thinkers whose practices explore the possibilities of listening, sound-making and collective experience. Drawing on Southeast Asia’s vibrant histories of sound and vernacular musicality, the festival highlights emerging experimental practices across the region and beyond. Through live performances, sound works and oral presentations, Sonic Shaman opens up a shared space where diverse artistic traditions intersect, inviting audiences into new ways of sensing and imagining the world.

A curated Memory Market invites the public to engage their senses beyond listening, evoking memories through taste, scent, and touch. Creative booths, workshops, and culinary collaborations by Singapore-based creatives and designers encourage experimentation, play and collective encounter.

Exhibitions and Programmes at SAM

Within SAM’s galleries, Elia Nurvista and Bagus Pandega: Nafasan Bumi ~ An Endless Harvest is a new exhibition by Indonesian artists Bagus Pandega and Elia Nurvista, marking the third edition of the museum’s ongoing Material Intelligence series. Their kinetic, multimedia and sculptural works reflect on Indonesia’s extractive economies, tracing materials linked to plantations, mining, and the promises of electric futures to probe the entanglement of resource extraction, colonial legacies and the climate crisis. 

SAM continues to present a range of exhibitions that explore how contemporary art shapes our understanding of the world. 

  • Talking Objects and The Living Room, in SAM’s refreshed Collection Gallery, explore the emotional and experiential dimensions embedded in everyday objects and the afterlife of performances. 
  • The Learning Gallery’s second edition invites younger audiences and families to experiment with ideas and materials across themes of identity, home, nature, memory, and place. 
  • In Conversation with SAM Residencies, a multi-modal presentation, spotlights the research-driven and collaborative methods of SAM’s artists, curators and creative practitioners. 

Momentary Pulses: A New Public Art Trail in the CBD

Beyond its galleries, The Everyday Museum launches Momentary Pulses, a two-year public art trail that unfolds across the heart of Singapore’s CBD. Featuring newly commissioned, site-specific artworks, the trail punctuates building facades, passageways and pedestrian routes with moments of listening, reflection and imagination, encouraging the public to encounter contemporary art amid the rhythms of daily urban life. 

Singapore Biennale 2025: pure intention – Tanjong Pagar Distripark and Citywide Venues

Visitors can also experience Singapore Biennale 2025: pure intention, which extends across heritage districts, malls, neighbourhoods and greenspaces, transforming familiar locales through more than 100 artworks and 30 new commissions. During SAW, the Biennale’s presence across the city is further activated through an expanded programme including SgSL tours at Tanglin Halt, curator-led walkthroughs and special bus tours that offer new perspectives on the Biennale’s themes and sites.

With free admission to all exhibitions and Singapore Biennale presentations during SAW, SAM invites the public to discover a rich spectrum of artistic encounters during Singapore’s pinnacle arts season. More information about SAM’s SAW 2026 offerings can be found on SAM’s website.