Time to shut down the Singapore Biennale?

One of three shop units at Lucky Plaza housing Singapore Biennale works. Spread out across multiple venues, the artworks at the biennale were exasperating to locate as wayfinding in these venues was non-existent, says the writer.

(ST PHOTOS: ONG SOR FERN)

Can someone please just kill the Singapore Biennale and put it, and art-lovers like me, out of our collective misery?

Now into its eighth edition, Singapore’s “blockbuster” contemporary arts event, commissioned by the National Arts Council (NAC) and organised by the Singapore Art Museum (SAM), barely registers on anyone’s radar. Ongoing till March 29, 2026, the event feels haphazard, disconnected from the community, and inaccessible to even determined artsgoers like myself.

While I am not a fan of contemporary art, I always make an effort to visit museums and galleries because I have a deep faith in the centrality of art to life. So I spent a day in December getting progressively more exasperated and depressed as I hunted down works in Lucky Plaza, Far East Shopping Centre and Tanglin Halt.

Exasperated because wayfinding in these venues was nonexistent. Depressed because the works are a severe challenge to my faith in art.

While the artworks are listed on the (clunky) website, would it be so hard for SAM to offer some directions onsite? A banner somewhere prominent would be nice. Or directional footprint stickers. Or simple maps outside the shopfronts housing the various exhibits alerting casual passersby to the art in the vicinity.

Even the shopfronts had only the barest indication they are part of the biennale, with such discreet ticker tape stickers that I wondered if the curators were actively trying to avoid drawing attention to the exhibits. Given the patchy quality of the works, I would be embarrassed to promote them too.