Cover A visitor at Sea Focus, within the Art SG 2026 art fair (Photo: Sea Focus and Art SG)
A visitor at Sea Focus, within the Art SG 2026 art fair (Photo: Sea Focus and Art SG)
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Robust blue-chip sales, strong Singaporean artist results and the debut of the Art SG Futures Prize affirmed the fair’s growing institutional and collector confidence
The numbers spoke early. When Art SG closed its fourth edition on January 25, more than 43,000 visitors had moved through the Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Marina Bay Sands over four days, engaging with over 100 exhibitors from more than 30 countries and territories. For seasoned collectors, the scale mattered less than what it signalled: a fair operating with liquidity, institutional confidence and a market no longer defined by promise alone.
Blue-chip galleries anchored the upper tier with conviction. Thaddaeus Ropac placed Raqib Shaw at £475,000 and Antony Gormley at £450,000, while White Cube reported strong placements across its roster, from Danh Vo at €260,000 to Michael Armitage at US$280,000. These were decisive transactions, entering serious private and public collections and underscoring Asia’s sustained appetite for global museum-grade work.
Equally telling was the strength of Asian galleries commanding depth rather than novelty. Johyun Gallery sold out its presentation of Lee Bae, totalling US$2.758 million, including a monumental installation. Asia Art Center placed works by Ju Ming and Li Chen in the US$70,000 to US$300,000 range, while Alisan Fine Arts reported steady regional acquisitions across modern and contemporary Chinese practices. The pattern was clear: regional masters are no longer adjacent to the global market—they are shaping it.
Read more: What to see at Art SG 2026: VIP preview and vernissage highlights
Above “Brushstroke Series” (2025) by Lee Bae (Photo: Art SG)
“Brushstroke Series” (2025) by Lee Bae (Photo: Art SG)
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Strong results were also achieved by Singaporean artists, reflecting sustained collector confidence in homegrown art practices. Artcommune placed key Nanyang works, including Chen Wen Hsi’s Memories of Taroko for SG$320,000 and Cheong Soo Pieng’s Queen’s Head, Yehliu for SG$140,000, while Prestige Gallery sold Liu Kang’s Portrait of a Lady (1955) for SG$87,200. Contemporary names saw comparable momentum: Sullivan+Strumpf recorded sales across its booth, including Dawn Ng’s Waterfall X (2025) at US$26,000, and Haridas Contemporary achieved a record high for Esmond Loh with a painting sold in the SG$30,000 to SG$40,000 range.
Institutional acquisitions reinforced that trajectory. Through the expanded SAM Art SG Fund, now allocating SG$250,000, the Singapore Art Museum acquired works by Mona Hatoum and Lotus Kang, strengthening its international contemporary art collection from a Southeast Asian perspective.
Beyond sales, Art SG’s evolving structure signalled a fair thinking in decades, not seasons. New sectors—Performance art and South Asia Insights—expanded its intellectual and geographic reach. South Asia Insights, supported by the TVS Initiative, positioned Singapore as a connective node between South and Southeast Asian markets, while off-site projects such as Wan Hai Hotel: Singapore Strait, co-presented with Shanghai’s Rockbund Art Museum at The Warehouse Hotel, extended institutional dialogue into the city itself.
In case you missed it: Art SG 2026: X Zhu-Nowell on reframing the art fair through performance, time and presence
Above Filipino artist Joshua Serafin’s “Relics An Eye Once Blind” (2025) at “Wan Hai Hotel: Singapore Strait” (Photo: National Arts Council)
Filipino artist Joshua Serafin’s “Relics An Eye Once Blind” (2025) at “Wan Hai Hotel: Singapore Strait” (Photo: National Arts Council)
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A notable addition this year was the launch of the ART SG Futures Prize, presented by UBS. Awarded to Filipino Canadian interdisciplinary artist Marigold Santos, whose work was presented by Patel Brown, the US$10,000 prize recognises outstanding work within the fair’s Futures sector and reflects a shared commitment to nurturing emerging talent and supporting the next generation of creative voices. The sector itself spotlighted newly commissioned works by rising artists presented by young galleries established within the past decade, positioning the fair as both marketplace and incubator.
The most consequential development, however, was the inaugural co-presentation of Sea Focus within Art SG. Long established as a curatorial platform, Sea Focus demonstrated how scholarship and market visibility can productively converge. Held for the first time under the same roof as Art SG, its eighth edition showcased over 100 artworks by emerging and established Southeast Asian artists, presented by 16 galleries—more than half with permanent spaces in Singapore.
Above John Z W Tung (pictured left), curator of Sea Focus 2026, introducing the fair to Alvin Tan (right), Singapore’s minister of state for Ministry of Trade and Industry, and Ministry of National Development during a guided tour of the exhibition (Photo: Sea Focus and Art SG)
John Z W Tung (pictured left), curator of Sea Focus 2026, introducing the fair to Alvin Tan (right), Singapore’s minister of state for Ministry of Trade and Industry, and Ministry of National Development during a guided tour of the exhibition (Photo: Sea Focus and Art SG)
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Curated by John Z W Tung under the theme “The Humane Agency”, Sea Focus foregrounded practices engaging with ecological fragility, conflict and displacement without sacrificing collector interest. Galleries reported strong sales alongside sustained institutional attention, while presentations by artists such as Ho Tzu Nyen, Melati Suryodarmo and Tang Da Wu attracted collectors seeking depth, context and cultural specificity. Its integration within Art SG recalibrated how Southeast Asian art is encountered—not as a regional sidebar, but as a central market proposition.
Above Melati Suryodarmo’s three-hour performance of her work, “I Love You”, from 2007 (Photo: Art SG)
Melati Suryodarmo’s three-hour performance of her work, “I Love You”, from 2007 (Photo: Art SG)
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For globally minded collectors, the implications are strategic. Art SG is no longer simply an access point to Asian art; it has become a barometer for where capital, institutions and cultural narratives intersect across the Indo-Pacific.
As the fair looks towards 2027, its strength lies in consolidation. By balancing blue-chip assurance with regional discovery, institutional rigour with private collecting agility, and new initiatives such as the Art SG Futures Prize with strong results for Singaporean artists, Art SG 2026 offered something increasingly rare: a market confident in its present and deliberate about its future.
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As Senior Editor of Tatler Singapore, Hashirin champions and refines the storytelling across platforms—curating and crafting compelling profiles, cover stories and features that spotlight visionaries shaping culture, business and impact. Driven by curiosity, she draws inspiration from the artists, changemakers and trailblazers she encounters through her work. Beyond the pages of Tatler, she is an avid supporter of local theatre and delights in seeking out art in every city she visits.
