March is delivering for Singapore's art calendar. Whether you're a gallery regular or someone who only goes when the openings have good wine, there are five shows opening this week that deserve your attention.
Distances — Jakkai Siributr at Sullivan+Strumpf (Opens 26 March)
Bangkok-based textile artist Jakkai Siributr makes his Singapore solo debut at Sullivan+Strumpf on Gillman Barracks. The show centres on large-scale embroidered works that confront migration, displacement, and the politics of borders — heavy themes handled with remarkable visual lightness. The pieces demand close inspection: what reads as decorative at distance reveals, up close, figures in flight. Opening reception Wednesday evening; the gallery runs through 30 April.
The Weight of Looking — Group Show at STPI (Opens 27 March)
STPI's latest group show brings together six printmakers from Southeast Asia exploring how memory functions as a physical act. The standout is Indonesian artist Mella Jaarsma, whose prints layer found documents with hand-drawn cartography to create works that feel simultaneously archival and alive. STPI Creative Workshop & Gallery, Robertson Quay. Free entry.
Fault Lines — Donna Ong at National Gallery Singapore (Opens 28 March)
Singapore's own Donna Ong returns to the National Gallery with an installation exploring geological time and personal history. She fills a room with vitrines containing found objects, handwritten notebooks, and mineral specimens, creating a cabinet of curiosities that resists easy reading. Ong is one of Singapore's most consistently interesting artists and this is her most personal work to date. Part of the Singapore Biennale 2026 programming.
NEON SUTRA — Digital Art Show at ArtScience Museum (Opens 29 March)
Expect queues. ArtScience Museum's immersive digital show — running through June — pairs Buddhist iconography with generative AI visuals and a spatial sound score composed by Singaporean producer Yong Yandsen. The result is part meditation, part spectacle. Tickets $22, concessions available. Timed entry recommended; book online.
Field Study — Photography by Zakaria Zainal at Objectifs (Opens 29 March)
Objectifs on Middle Road is the best small gallery in Singapore and this show confirms it. Zakaria Zainal's documentary photography traces the lives of migrant workers in Singapore over three years. The images are unflinching and deeply humane — this is photojournalism at gallery standard. Free entry. Runs through 18 May.
If you can only make one this week, go to Objectifs first. The Donna Ong installation second. Everything else is a bonus. All shows are free unless noted.
📍 Key Venues
Sullivan+Strumpf: 9 Lock Road, #02-22, Gillman Barracks, Singapore 108937
STPI: 41 Robertson Quay, Singapore 238236
National Gallery Singapore: 1 St Andrew's Road, Singapore 178957
ArtScience Museum: 6 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore 018974
Objectifs: 155 Middle Road, Singapore 188977
