Arts Picks: S’pore Art Book Fair, musical comedy Congratulations, Get Rich!, local bands in photos

Singapore Art Book Fair (SGABF)

South-east Asia’s largest art book fair is returning from Oct 31 to Nov 2 with more than 120 local and international exhibitors – its largest edition to date.

Ticket prices remain the same as 2024’s – $6 online and $8 on-site – even as the fair moves into a larger space that is the New Art Museum Singapore and Whitestone Gallery.

Even Singapore Art Book Fair (SGABF) devotees – the fair attracted 4,500 visitors in the 2024 edition – will discover new things, as about half the exhibitors are first-timers. The fair started in 2013.

Lovers of the brilliant colours in risograph prints will want to check out the new booths by Saigon-based studio WEDOGOOD and Cairo-based studio Rizo Masr.

First-time local exhibitors include graphic design trio Hause, contemporary art book publisher Con-Temporary Art Editions, and visual artists Chin Lew and Isabell Hansen.

The pilot edition of the 14-week Thing Books Residency Programme has also yielded three intriguing art books worth your time.

Musician Yuen Chee Wai – who is part of experimental band The Observatory – presents Refugia, an artist book gathering observations of caves, jungles and the sea, subjects reminiscent of his band’s wildly successful multisensory concert Refuge.

Film-maker Seth Cheong’s In The Year Of The Snake looks at the relationship between cinema and print.

Alt-rock band Subsonic Eye vocalist Nur Wahidah’s What Is The Soul, But Crazed With Longing For You reflects on finding divinity and solace in nature.

Founder Renee Ting says SGABF 2025’s aim is “to create more space for meaningful engagement with the materiality of printed matter”. To that end, visitors can register – at an additional cost – for a series of short bookmaking workshops that touch on different binding and print techniques.

About a third of the exhibitors are from Singapore, with familiar names including Basheer Graphic Books, Mynah Magazine and Atelier Hoko. The rest of the exhibitors hail from all over the world, including from Argentina to Vietnam.

Where: New Art Museum Singapore and Whitestone Gallery, 05-03/06 Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 39 Keppel Road
MRT: Outram Park
When: Oct 31 to Nov 2, noon to 8pm
Admission: Until Oct 27, $6; limited number of tickets at the door, $8; tickets are for per-day entry
Info: singaporeartbookfair.org

Congratulations, Get Rich! by Singapore Repertory Theatre

A haunted karaoke bar on the brink of collapse sets the stage for Congratulations, Get Rich!, a supernatural musical comedy presented by the Singapore Repertory Theatre, La Boite Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company.

In a last-ditch attempt to save her business, Mandy throws a karaoke extravaganza, but is greeted by two unexpected guests – her mother who died more than 20 years ago and a mysterious woman.

“I am obsessed with karaoke,” says playwright Merlynn Tong, 37, who also plays Mandy in the show.

“My parents owned karaoke outlets when I was very young. I loved getting to visit them before the customers appeared for the evening. Later, as a teenager, so many of my core memories were formed in a K-Box or Party World karaoke room.”

The script also draws from her “eternal fascination” with her mother.

“She took her own life when I was 14 years old, and so many of my shows have been set around this event. I find myself grappling with, unravelling and examining this pivotal moment of her life a lot. My mother often appears as a kind of ghost in a scene or two in my plays, and I embody her.”

The semi-autobiographical play also sees Tong’s real-life fiance Zachary Boulton play her onstage lover Xavier.

Tong was raised in Singapore and has been based in Australia since she was 22. “All my works are about Singapore, and getting to finally perform here feels like a homecoming.”

Congratulations, Get Rich! – directed by La Boite’s artistic director Courtney Stewart – had its world premiere in Brisbane in September 2025. It was given four-star reviews in Australia’s Limelight Magazine and ArtsHub, with the former calling the show “hilarious and heart-wrenching”.

The show opens in Singapore on Oct 29.

Where: Drama Centre Theatre, Level 3 National Library Building, 100 Victoria Street
MRT: Bugis
When: Oct 29 to Nov 9; Tuesdays to Fridays, 7.30pm; Saturdays, 2.30 and 7.30pm; Sundays, 2.30pm
Admission: $28 to $88
Info: www.srt.com.sg/show/congratulations-get-rich

A Love Song by Mary-Ann Teo

While the crowd in the mosh pit flies into a frenzy, photographer Mary-Ann Teo is there with her camera, trying to capture a moment of stillness.

An ardent fan of the local music scene, Teo is a regular at gigs. Her black-and-white photographs of stalwart bands like Force Vomit, The Stoned Revivals and Hanging Up the Moon, as well as emerging acts such as The CB Dogs and True Anger, will be on show at the Objectifs Courtyard from Oct 25.

The best time to see the exhibition is at its opening, which will take place from 2 to 7pm. There will be live acoustic sets by Ashvind Ramani, TypeWriter, The Oddfellows, The CB Dogs, Leslie Low, Hanging Up The Moon and Piblokto.

The Oddfellows and The CB Dogs will be selling exclusive merchandise too.

Says Teo: “I started shooting local bands because I love their music and I thought they deserve to be seen and heard more, and I wanted them to be seen the way I see them.

“The key thing is to establish a friendship with the band. It allows you to observe them closer and to know them better, so you can take better photographs.”

Where: Objectifs Courtyard, Objectifs – Centre for Photography and Film, 155 Middle Road
MRT: Bras Basah/Bencoolen
When: Oct 25 to Dec 18; opening performance is on Oct 25, 2 to 7pm
Admission: Free
Info: www.objectifs.com.sg/a-love-song