National Gallery Singapore to close South-east Asian art exhibition till Oct 2027 for renewal

SINGAPORE – Art lovers have only a couple more months to see the National Gallery Singapore’s (NGS) permanent exhibition of modern South-east Asian art Between Declarations And Dreams in its current form. The exhibition will be closed to the public from April 2026 to October 2027, NGS said on its website.

“We appreciate your patience and look forward to sharing a renewed presentation upon reopening,” it wrote. This will be the first major renewal of the UOB South-east Asia Gallery since the exhibition first opened to the public in 2015. The show, which spans 15 galleries, is the major art history exhibition anchoring NGS’ Supreme Court Wing.

At the same time, NGS’ Rotunda Library & Archive will be closed from Feb 14, 2026 to October 2027. NGS stated on its website that walk-in visits will not be allowed during the period, but appointments can be made for access to library and archival materials from March 8.

The Straits Times has reached out to NGS for details on the gallery’s renewal and whether other parts of the gallery will be affected.

Divided into four sections across three levels, the current exhibition is a mammoth one that chronologically tells the story of modern art in the diverse region. It features over 300 artworks from the 19th century onwards, including ones by Indonesian painter Raden Saleh and Filipino painter Juan Luna.

The renewal of the South-east Asian gallery comes after

NGS celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2025

and completed

its first revamp of the permanent exhibition of Singapore art history from April 2024 to July 2025

.

In July 2025, NGS launched

Singapore Stories: Pathways And Detours In Art

, which spotlighted more women and minority artists and expanded its remit to include a broader scope of visual culture, including film and book illustration.

In January 2024, UOB – one of NGS’ founding partners –

renewed its partnership with the museum for another five years

, promising money that will go to gallery research and the acquisition of new works for the South-east Asia gallery. NGS holds the keys to the largest public collection of modern South-east Asian art in the world today.

“I’d like to see more exhibitions that connect histories across regions and time – exhibitions that not only sharply profile art, but also reveal how artists in South-east Asia have shaped the world’s visual imagination,” chief curator Patrick Flores told ST in a November 2025 interview.