The UOB Southeast Asia Gallery is temporarily closed and will reopen in late 2027. In the meantime, works from the National Collection remain exhibited across the Gallery.
Raden Salah. Boschbrand (Forest Fire). 1849. Oil on canvas, 300 x 396 cm. Collection of National Gallery Singapore. This work has been adopted by Yong Hon Kong Foundation.
SANTAI: IN PROGRESS is a one-day creative gathering that brings together illustrators, artists, and makers at National Gallery Singapore.
Commemorating the Gallery’s anniversary, the programme explores the art of gathering through the ongoing process of art making and the creative experience.
Audiences can discover independent makers and explore illustrations, crafts, and other creative practices. Enjoy live performances, participate in hands-on activities, and contribute to a collective artwork.
Developed in response to the Gallery’s Southeast Asian collection – Let’s Imagine the World Together: Art in Southeast Asia, SANTAI: IN PROGRESS considers how the collective artistic and creative voices contribute to the formation of communities, identities, and culture across Southeast Asia.
Across the day, audiences can:
Experience SANTAI Rhythm: Encounter live performances that bring sound, rhythm, and movement into the Gallery.
Join Sketch Chapter: Sketch and engage with the Gallery, its architecture, and surroundings through a dedicated sketching session.
Visit the SANTAI Social Circle: Contribute to a growing artwork through collective drawing and making. Take part in creative activities and explore ways of making, sharing, and responding through co-creation and hands-on participation.
Explore the SANTAI Market: Discover works by illustrators, artists, craftspeople, publishers, and independent makers.
SANTAI: IN PROGRESS invites audiences to engage with creativity through collective making, sharing, experimenting, and connections.
When: 21 Nov 2026, 11am – 7pm
Suitable For: All
Where: Various locations around National Gallery Singapore
Visit Information
When:
21 Nov 2026, 11am – 7pm
Where:
Various locations around National Gallery Singapore
Contact us
For enquiries related to SANTAI: IN PROGRESS, please feel free to contact our team at programmes@nationalgallery.sg regarding programme details, participation, or collaboration opportunities.
SANTAI Rhythm brings live music and performances into the Gallery, creating a vibrant focal point that invites audiences to gather, pause, and experience the Gallery in a different way.
Featuring local musicians and performance groups, each performance is developed as a contemporary response to themes, stories, and artworks from the Gallery’s Southeast Asia collection. Through rhythm, movement, and sound, artists explore ideas of identity, cultural exchange, memory, and community, demonstrating how artistic traditions continue to evolve across the region.
Presented at intervals throughout the day, SANTAI Rhythm transforms the Gallery into a shared space for encounter and participation, where audiences can experience artistic practices beyond the visual and witness how creativity continues to be reimagined today.
The SANTAI Social Circle is a participatory creative space where audiences can drop in throughout the day to draw, make, and contribute to a series of hands-on activities. With each contribution reflecting the diverse ideas, stories, and creative expressions of the day's participants.
Together, these activities reflect the central idea ofSANTAI: IN PROGRESS –that creativity, community, and culture are continually shaped through participation, exchange, and the contributions of many individuals.
A community makers' market, SANTAI Market brings together illustrators, artists, craftsmen, and independent makers in a shared space.
The market offers audiences the opportunity to discover and support a range of creative practices while connecting with the people behind the work.
More than a place to shop, the market creates opportunities for artists and makers to meet, exchange ideas, and build connections with one another.
Featuring:
Illustrators and visual artists
Independent publishers and zine makers
Printmakers
Craftspeople and designers
Books, creative products, and small-batch works
SANTAI Market
Gallery Sketch Chapter
4–7pm | Various locations around National Gallery Singapore
Sketch Chapter returns as part of SANTAI: IN PROGRESS, inviting participants to explore the Gallery through drawing in our signature indoor–outdoor sketching experience.
Whether you're joining the First Marks or Collective tier, you'll have the opportunity to sketch alongside a growing community of artists and enthusiasts. As part of this special edition, participants are also invited to display selected works on or along the SANTAI Social Wall, contributing to a collective showcase of creativity in progress.
For more information on Sketch Chapter, registration and participation, please visit the Sketch Chapter programme page.
Calling all artists, makers, and creatives to be part of SANTAI: In Progress and booth at the SANTAI Market.
Participants are welcome to showcase a range of works, including art prints, accessories, trinkets, zines, and ceramics. As part of the programme’s focus, participants are encouraged to consider how their works might draw from or respond to Singapore and Southeast Asian cultures.
Selected participants will be featured within a curated marketplace set alongside a wider programme of independent makers, live performances, hands-on activities, and a collective artwork.
Each selected participant will be provided with one table and two chairs. Please note that electrical points will not be available. To participate, please submit the form below.
The newly revamped DBS Singapore Gallery exhibition presents a layered, ever-changing story of Singapore’s art history. Explore the unique pathways and detours of artists, and see their iconic artworks from the 19th century to present.
Exhibition
Art Remembers
Bringing together 20 artworks centring on Southeast Asia, this exhibition examines how artists work with archives to address forgotten, lesser known, or difficult histories.
Exhibition
Passion is Volcanic: Desire in Southeast Asian Art (R18)
Passion is Volcanic: Desire in Southeast Asian Art explores how desire, eroticism and the body have shaped artistic practices and cultural discourses in the Southeast Asia. Featuring rarely seen artworks from the National Collection alongside key regional loans, the exhibition embraces the power and presence of desire in art and life. Discover bold, provocative expressions that blur the boundaries we keep between the private and public, the intimate and sublime, soft pleasures and hard politics.
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