Art SG aims to keep edge with new offerings, from S.E.A. Focus to an art hotel to a $10,000 prize

SINGAPORE – Art SG fair director Shuyin Yang’s preparations for the annual mega fair begin almost immediately after each edition’s conclusion.

Just two weeks after Art SG 2025, she was back on the road. Among her first excursions was to Shanghai to see the inaugural staging of the Wan Hai Hotel – an itinerant art experience by Rockbund Art Museum that she invited to Singapore as part of Art SG 2026.

Then, in Hampi, she huddled with Singapore artist Robert Zhao in the Daroji Sloth Bear Sanctuary as bears licked ghee and honey around her. The India trip cemented partnerships with institutions there for a new platform highlighting South Asian art, sponsored by automotive manufacturer TVS Motor. Zhao is presenting some of his works at art non-profit organisation The Institutum’s booth at the fair.

Ms Yang tells The Straits Times: “Because we are a hub, we touch so many regions. We connect with South Asia, on to East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the broader Asia-Pacific. The art fair can’t be an island, so we need to form these meaningful connections.”

Over 100 galleries from more than 30 countries and territories have signed up for the fourth edition at Marina Bay Sands – a comparable number with the past two editions. The anchor event of Singapore Art Week (SAW) runs from Jan 22 to 25, and is presented by multinational investment bank UBS.

The 2026 edition boasts a slew of new initiatives that hopes to differentiate Art SG in an increasingly crowded Asian art fair landscape.

Wan Hai Hotel: Singapore Strait will draw visitors into a world of video programmes, installations and performances at The Warehouse Hotel, and the TVS initiative is a three-year project that includes a keynote lecture and a South Asian exhibition space in Art SG.

But the biggest change is the collapsing of S.E.A. Focus into Art SG,

which made headlines in September

. For seven editions, S.E.A. Focus was a separate exhibition of South-east Asian artists, which moved from Gillman Barracks to Tanjong Pagar Distripark, run by print and paper gallery and workshop STPI. The National Arts Council announced it would be taken over by Art SG to help grow South-east Asian art on a global scale, though it will retain its distinctive brand.

Ms Yang, who advocated for this inclusion, says: “S.E.A. Focus has been an amazing and meaningful platform, and it is at that point in time when it should be scaled up to reach broader audiences.”

Against fears that this could dilute S.E.A. Focus’ uniqueness, Ms Yang believes the re-invention will benefit both platforms. “Now that they are under one roof, we can share audiences with single-ticket access. We’re able to present a more complete narrative of South-east Asia. We want all the collectors to circulate through and then make the assessment on what’s the most interesting and relevant for their own collections.”

Ms Yang’s work to grow Art SG in the shadow of the pandemic culminates in an exciting guest list in 2026. These include the influential Tate patrons group, which supports Britain’s Tate galleries. The French Embassy is flying in curators from Paris’ Palais de Tokyo and arts centre LUMA Arles, while Shanghai’s Rockbund Art Museum brings a coterie of its own patrons.

The director of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Mr Michael Govan, is visiting Singapore to kick-start the museum’s acquisition for a permanent South-east Asia collection. Hong Kong non-profit Para Site, one of Asia’s most active independent art spaces, is hosting its first patrons event at the Wan Hai Hotel project.

The project takes its name from a motel in Penang and evokes the borderless global networks of Chinatowns. More than 20 artists have been invited to show work related to oceans, rivers and migration, including Singapore artist Ming Wong’s Bloody Marys Bar at the hotel bar and Malaysian artist Hoo Fan Chon’s fish station.

These can be experienced in the hotel’s reception area, restaurant, bar and corridors over 10 days from morning to midnight and are open to non-hotel guests.

Rockbund Art Museum’s executive director X Zhu-Nowell, who conceptualised the project, says: “When we turned to Singapore, it became clear that it needed a different vocabulary. The Singapore Strait is not just a passage, it is also a dense zone shaped by shipping, finance, labour migration, surveillance and extraction.

“Singapore Art Week moves at a fast and overwhelming pace that can sometimes feel almost transactional. Wan Hai Hotel offers a different rhythm. The project deliberately creates conditions for slower encounters.”

Mr John Tung remains curator for S.E.A. Focus and has assembled 16 participating galleries under the theme of The Humane Agency. He promises that the platform’s curatorial rigour has not been diminished with the move to Marina Bay Sands.

Visitors can look forward to new works but also pieces already significant in South-east Asian art history. Titanic figures like Indonesian artist Arahmaiani and the Philippines’ Imelda Cajipe-Endaya are balanced with younger names like Filipino artist Nicole Coson. Singapore artist Tang Da Wu’s prerequisite for being included was that he had to be shown together with younger artists.

“I didn’t need to be blackmailed,” Mr Tung, who says his curation has been incredibly price-blind, jokes. “The common refrain I’ve heard is that S.E.A. Focus is a barometer of practices in the region, and you cannot be a good barometer if your sample size is exceedingly skewed.”

Referencing America’s capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro on Jan 3, he says: “2025 was a traumatic year on a global level and 2026 is off to an even worse start. I wanted to put out there something that could be a beacon of light that not only recognises the situation we are in, but also gives focus as to what we could do to make it better. Artists are essentially trying to communicate a more noble path forward.”

Ms Yang has worked to add a third art cluster in the River Valley area in addition to Tanjong Pagar Distripark and Gillman Barracks. There will be a map, with dining options marked out, helping visitors navigate the area that contains the Wan Hai Hotel project, STPI’s inaugural The Print Show & Symposium, Tanoto Art Foundation’s first exhibition at New Bahru, Kim Association’s presentation of Chinese artist Shuang Li, Singapore artist Dawn Ng’s solo at the Singapore Repertory Theatre black box and JW Projects’ show of Shanghai artist Ge Hui.

The cherry on top for Art SG 2026 is a new US$10,000 (S$12,900) Art SG Futures Prize presented by UBS to an outstanding emerging artist featured in the fair’s young galleries section.

Ms Yang says her work has been helped by exciting developments in South-east Asia, which add to Singapore’s allure as the region’s gateway. Many international visitors are taking the chance to fly on to the ongoing Thailand Biennale in Phuket or the much-hyped private museum Dib Bangkok that opened in late 2025.

“People like to compare different countries,” she says of this rich hinterland for Singapore. “But honestly, we are all part of the same ecosystem. We all rise together.”

Book It/ Art SG and S.E.A. Focus

Where: Sands Expo & Convention Centre, 10 Bayfront Avenue
When: Jan 22, 6 to 9pm; Jan 23 and 24, 11am to 7pm; Jan 25, 11am to 6pm 
Admission: $38 (SG Culture Pass eligible)
Info: 

artsg.com/tickets