Arts Picks: Lights at Fullerton Hotel, Lim Tze Peng, duo piano odyssey

Brightening Lives @ Fullerton Hotel

Singaporeans have become accustomed to seeing the Civic District light up during the annual Light To Night and Singapore Night festivals. But ahead of 2025, make time also for eight projections that will be beamed onto the facade of The Fullerton Hotel Singapore from Dec 26 to 31.

The Brightening Lives light projections are created by young artists with disabilities from home-grown non-profit organisation Art:Dis, and will be shown every 15 minutes from 8 to 10.30pm nightly.

They are part of the broader Marina Bay Singapore Countdown programme presented by the Urban Redevelopment Authority, which will culminate in the New Year’s Eve fireworks display.

The works are a precursor of what is to come in 2025, when Singapore will celebrate its 60th birthday.

Organisers say the commissioned and adapted artworks encourage the community to reflect on what it means to thrive in Singapore, “where everyone, regardless of background or circumstance, has an opportunity to succeed”.

For In Flight, Amelia Tan uses golden birds as a metaphor for individuals’ resilience and adaptability, while the pop-inflected Piece By Piece – by Brennan Tay, Crystal Tay and Sophie Valerio – leans into video game iconography to show how blocks of different colours and shapes come together to create dynamic and unified structures.

Where: The Fullerton Hotel Singapore, 1 Fullerton Square
MRT: Raffles Place
When: Dec 26 to 31, 8 to 10.30pm
Admission: Free
Info: marinabaycountdown.gov.sg

Lim Tze Peng: A Life Of Art

The 103-year-old Lim Tze Peng – who is having a belated first solo exhibition at the National Gallery Singapore – has long been a staple artist in collecting circles, his inventively nostalgic re-creations of old Singapore scenes reassuring to art buyers.

Cape of Good Hope Art Gallery in Bras Basah Complex is closing 2024 with yet another tribute to the elderly maestro. Gallery director Terence Teo started collecting works by Singapore’s oldest living pioneer artist 25 years ago.

Lim Tze Peng: A Life Of Art classifies his works on display into six categories – village paintings, nostalgic street scenes, impressions of the Singapore River, travel paintings, paintings of trees and abstract calligraphy.

It also includes a special selection of large paintings by Lim – known to paint works measuring almost 5m wide – as well as several rare videos of him sharing his thoughts on art.

Lim told The Straits Times in October that art is key to his longevity. “Making art every day is like exercising daily,” he said. “My arms go up and down, left and right. Because of art, I am rarely ill.”

Where: Cape of Good Hope Art Gallery, 03-17 Bras Basah Complex, 231 Bain Street
MRT: Bugis
When: Dec 28 to Jan 28; noon to 7pm (Mondays), 11.30am to 7pm (Tuesdays to Sundays)
Admission: Free
Info: str.sg/gohA

A Piano Odyssey: Duo Recital By Kennis & Jonah

Singaporean pianists Kennis Ang and Jonah Kwek, who in 2024 won first prize in the Stecher & Horowitz Collegiate Two Piano Competition held by the Music Teachers National Association in the United States, will present a two-hour duo recital at the Esplanade Recital Studio.

On the programme are classic crowd-pleasers, from the bravado display of virtuosity required of 20th-century Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski’s Paganini Variations to the intimate tragedy of Austrian composer Franz Schubert’s Fantasy In F Minor.

After a 15-minute intermission, be wowed by the lush romanticism of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances.

Where: Esplanade Recital Studio, 1 Esplanade Drive
MRT: City Hall
When: Dec 30, 7.30pm
Admission: $38 (standard) and $25 (student/full-time national serviceman/senior concession)
Info: str.sg/oNXFm