In conjunction with Singapore Art Week 2026, The Private Museum is pleased to present Human Being Human: Selections from the Collection of John and Cheryl Chia. Kickstarting The Private Museum’s 2026 programming, this exhibition invites contemplation on the human experience.
The exhibition title, Human Being Human, frames this contemplation as a moment of possibility: our lives are continually defined by the search for identity, the quiet, persistent aspiration for fundamental purity and goodness, even as we navigate a world characterised by upheaval. This exploration is filtered through works that focus on the human body, or the inescapable bodily experience, recognising it as the most immediate and vulnerable site of our existence.
Drawn from the private collection of John and Cheryl Chia, this collector showcase offers a contemplation of the human condition—the singular, inescapable journey shared by all. The exhibition attempts to contextualise this journey through four conceptual chapters, broadly capturing the sub-themes of Stateless, State, Statehood, and Rebirth, thereby analysing the collection of artworks that traces the human trajectory toward identity.
John and Cheryl Chia acquired their inaugural pieces of artwork approximately 25 years ago, while serving as medical officers. What began as an initial, inquisitive engagement swiftly evolved into a profound passion for learning about and interacting with art. Over the ensuing decades, this dedication has culminated in a compelling collection of works that they find both intellectually stimulating and culturally resonant.
As Cheryl Chia aptly states: “We are drawn to art that reflects our times, that reflects our experiences…(Art) it is an extension of our experiences, our thoughts, our ideas. It comes from somebody else, but it makes up the world that we live in. And we live in the here and now…”, inspiring audiences to explore how art can illuminate the complexities of contemporary existence.
The exhibition will run from 19 January to 26 April 2026.
In conjunction with Singapore Art Week 2025, The Private Museum is proud to present Of Dreams and Contemplation: I am All but a Story – Selections from the Collection of Richard Koh. This exhibition marks the second showcase of Richard Koh’s evolving journey as a collector and gallerist, showcasing over 50 works from his personal collection. This new selection of works reflects an evolving journey that continues to resonate with new meanings in The Private Museum’s expansive space at the Osborne House.
Building upon the narrative of the first instalment in 2019—held at the museum’s former home at 51 Waterloo Street—the second instalment expands the scope of Koh’s deeply personal collection. The first showcase offered an intimate glimpse into Koh’s collection—emphasising monochromatic, abstract, and landscape works that reflected quiet introspection. Now, Of Dreams and Contemplation: I am All but a Story continues to unfold a collection rich in personal meaning—presenting works that trace Koh’s decades-long interactions with art and the artists he admires.
Collected with a focus on memory and emotion, Koh’s private collection spans Southeast Asia and beyond, blending local, regional, and global perspectives. This exhibition deepens the dialogue between art and life, revealing Koh’s ongoing exploration of what he calls a “visual diary”—works that evoke deeply personal moments and emotions.
As both a collector and the founder of Richard Koh Fine Art, Richard Koh has played a pivotal role in shaping and contributing towards the art ecology in Southeast Asia. This collaboration with Richard Koh underscores the collective effort and dedication towards fostering meaningful exchanges between artists, collectors, the arts communities, and audiences from all walks of life.
Kickstarting the Museum’s 2025 programme, Of Dreams and Contemplation: I am All but a Story invites all to explore the richness of art and discover how collections can tell deeply personal stories. As Richard Koh aptly states, “Art, in any collection, should have its own story,” inspiring audiences to embark on their own journey of collecting and storytelling through art.
The exhibition will be run from 9 January to 9 March 2025.
Download our exhibition leaflet for more information here.
Download our exhibition press release here.
As part of Singapore Art Week 2024, The Private Museum Singapore is delighted to present Chronic Compulsions: Selected Works from Art Addicts Anonymous, an exhibition showcasing the groundbreaking collaboration between a local private museum, private collectors and seasoned curators.
This unique exhibition marks the 10th anniversary of the formation of Art Addicts Anonymous—a collectors’ circle that has evolved from a casual gathering of art lovers into a strong community of collectors who want to share their passion for art with society at large.
Chronic Compulsions unveils a remarkable selection of over 40 modern and contemporary works from 15 participating collections from Singapore, each piece bearing a personal connection to its collector.
As we celebrate a decade of passion and purpose, this exhibition is testament to the timeless nature of art and its transformative power. It represents the synergies between The Private Museum, Art Addicts Anonymous, and the arts community, injecting value and vibrancy into the Singapore art scene.
The exhibition will be run from 11 January to 24 March 2024.
Download our exhibition leaflet for more information here.
Download our exhibition press release here.
The Private Museum Singapore is pleased to present Make Yourself at Home: A Glimpse into All Welcoming Scenarios, an exhibition at a special interim location, a private residence, since it moved out of its previous home. Having been preparing for its relocation to 11 Upper Wilkie Road, it was also a time for introspection, ruminating on what it means to be ‘The Private Museum’.
The conceptualisation of the exhibition began in part as an existential query into the meaning behind why The Private Museum was founded, and continues to pose similar questions to the public through a multi-focal approach. The exhibition is carved into two parts that correspond to the disciplines of art and design, offering a glimpse of the museum’s upcoming programmes at its new home, which is projected for its inaugural launch in the second half of 2023, on top of its ongoing developments in design and branding.
Revisiting the museum’s key platforms, the exhibition features selected works and practices by artists from Singapore and the Asia Pacific such as Kumari Nahappan, Natee Utarit, Ian de Souza, Andy Yang, and independent curator John Tung. Within the design and branding presentation are an interactive and research-driven showcase presented in collaboration with local design studio Currency as well as a dollhouse model of the museum’s new home, designed by the award-winning WOHA Architects, and produced by Integrus Model.
Drawing from the philosopher Jacques Derrida’s ethics of hospitality, Make Yourself at Home is a double entendre that not only reflects the roots of the museum as a hosting ground for open collaboration with art practitioners and home for private collections, but also the ‘hospitality’ that is shown when a host welcomes guests into their living abode or art space. The locale of the exhibition being in a home is itself an enactment of one such welcoming scenario, serving as an apt reminder of the importance of patronage.
“In order to constitute the space of a habitable house and a home, you also need an opening, a door and windows… a passage to the outside world / to the stranger” says Derrida of hospitality. The exhibition invites viewers to embark on their journey of reflection—whether as a first-time visitor or a devoted museum-goer—to really consider what the words ‘The’ ‘Private’ ‘Museum’ put together as an entity in the arts eco-system could be for them.
This exhibition will run from 7 January to 26 March 2023.
Download our exhibition leaflet for more information here.
In conjunction with Singapore Art Week, The Private Museum is proud to present Khoo Sui Hoe: An Overview Part II – The Patron, Datuk Seri Lim Chong Keat’s Collection from 1960s to 1980s. Drawing from the single largest collection of Khoo Sui Hoe, the exhibition showcases a selection of 16 significant paintings, honouring the friendship and patronage of the artist’s foremost patron, Datuk Seri Lim.
The collection traces Khoos’s earlier artistic career which spans the South East Asian Peninsula. It encompasses his unadulterated artistic explorations of landscapes and figures, which Datuk Seri Lim termed as “Inscape with Figures”; inspired by the rivers and rubber estates of his hometown, Kedah, the abstraction of mountains in Cameron Highlands and the composition of clouds in Thailand.
The highlight of the exhibition is Children of the Sun, Khoo’s first monumental painting which was commissioned for the Singapore Conference Hall in 1965. Marking the 50th year anniversary of its creation, the Children of the Sun returns to be exhibited in Singapore.
In conjunction with the Singapore Art Week and to commemorate renowned Singaporean sculptor, Anthony Poon (1945 – 2006) on the 10th anniversary of his passing, The Private Museum is proud to present From Maquettes to Sculptures: An Anthony Poon Estate Collection.
This is the first major exhibition of Poon’s sculptural maquettes from the artist estate collection following his last retrospective exhibition in 2009. The exhibition showcases a selection of 25 maquettes; of which some were materialised into iconic public commissions and others remained as unrealised ideas in the artist’s estate collection.
Tracing the Cultural Medallion recipient’s artistic practice as a sculptor, the highlights of the exhibition include significant commissions such as Affinity commissioned for the HDB Hub, Aspirations for the Old Hill Street Police Station, Crimson Eagle for Tampines Junction, Joyluck for Singapore Turf Club, Sense Surround for St Regis Hotel and Waves Columns for International Plaza.
In conjunction with Singapore Art Week 2017, The Private Museum is proud to present 21st Century Calligraphy: Selections from the Nanshun Shanfang Collection. The exhibition features 19 Chinese calligraphy works from 5 established Chinese calligraphers such as Wang Dongling, Sun Xiaoyun, Wang Tiande, Wei Ligang, and Guan Jun.
Wang Dongling’s artworks illuminate the essence of gestural abstraction through his bold experimentations of embodied action and performance in Chinese calligraphy. Wang Tiande’s artistic practice explores the ambivalent relation between contemporaneity and the traditional. Wei Ligang’s background in mathematics contributes to his unique approach of the deconstruction and re-construction of Chinese characters in his artworks. Sun Xiaoyun’s emphasis on her brushstrokes and aesthetics, along with Guan Jun’s neoclassical style, portray distinctive interpretations of historical transcripts by renowned Chinese poets such as Du Fu and Su Dong Po.
Viewers will gain the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the wide array of calligraphy styles-reflective of their various artistic development and practices in breaking the conventional approach of Chinese calligraphy-displayed through this collection.
In conjunction with Singapore Art Week 2018, The Private Museum and Richard Koh Fine Art are pleased to co-present the exhibition, Optimism is Ridiculous: The Altarpieces by leading contemporary Thai visual artist, Natee Utarit.
The exhibition features a selection of 7 artworks from the artist’s Optimism is Ridiculous: The Altarpieces series, which began in 2012 and has been featured in various galleries and museums in Asia. Consisting of a total of 12 works, these works are composed of multiple panels forming a diptych, triptych, or polyptych, following the tradition of classical religious paintings with elaborate frames and settings.
The body of works takes its inspiration from paintings that have traditionally adorned the altars of Christian churches. The Altarpieces is Utarit’s critique of Western modernism; a satire of modernism and capitalism addressing its seduction of local customs and traditions.
After its debut at Ayala Museum in February 2017 and its second stop at National Gallery of Indonesia in October 2017, the travelling exhibition finds a third new home in the intimate space of The Private Museum.
In conjunction with Singapore Art Week 2019, The Private Museum is pleased to present Of Dreams and Contemplation: Selections from the Collection of Richard Koh. As part of The Private Museum’s Collector Platform, this exhibition features contemporary works of international artists from the private art collection of veteran gallerist, Richard Koh of Richard Koh Fine Art.
Presented as a whole for the first time, this is the inaugural showcase of 33 carefully-selected artworks from Koh’s collection spanning more than 20 years. A gallerist by profession, Koh’s distinctive way of collecting is informed by his quiet reflection and interactions with the art world. This collection is an exploration of his journey in the world of art and life, in public and in private, within Southeast Asia and internationally.
Of Dreams and Contemplation reflects a multitude of Koh’s ruminations, personalities and interests through the works of 30 artists. Often referred by Koh as ‘Landscapes of Memory’, each work evokes a specific memory, a tangible reminder of a fleeting moment in his life. Mostly abstract and monochromatic, the works offer rare insights into Richard Koh’s private contemplations—inviting the viewer to interpret and delve deeper.
The Private Museum (TPM) Singapore is pleased to present I am a CON artist: Continuous Contemplations of Justin Lee. The exhibition is a special collaboration between artist, collector and space, locating itself in two spaces with a main exhibition and special showcase happening in conjunction with Singapore Art Week 2021.
Alongside a selection of past works from The Teng Collection, a new body of works will also be exhibited, building upon Justin Lee’s continuous contemplations on his identity as an artist and member of civil society. The artist employs visual and cultural references to provide social commentary on the perennial issues of consumerism and individualism, which in today’s digital age of instant gratifications and everyday glorifications become exponentially magnified.
Composed of paintings, text-based artefacts, performance and interactive art installation, the exhibition confronts its audience not only with the ceaseless forces of rapid globalisation and hyper digitalisation, but also challenges them to examine their individual complicity in glorifying and immortalising one’s self in the everyday.
Through this special collaboration, TPM expands beyond its scope as a home for private collectors by merging its artist and collector platforms to present the interconnectedness and intimate relationships that form between artists, collectors, art spaces, and their audiences.
Featuring Justin Lee’s monumental installations from The Teng Collection, the one-week special showcase reflects the artist’s expanding oeuvre that explores the themes of identity and socio-cultural norms in Singapore across a variety of mediums. The showcase forms part of the exhibition I am a CON artist: Continuous Contemplations of Justin Lee, happening in conjunction with Singapore Art Week 2021.
In conjunction with Singapore Art Week 2020, The Private Museum (TPM) Singapore is pleased to present Emerging: Collecting Singapore Contemporary – Selections from the DUO Collection. As part of TPM’s 10th anniversary celebrations, the museum revisits its foundation of bridging the private and the public; this exhibition is the first in a series of five featuring an array of private collections in Singapore.
The DUO, whose collectors prefer to remain anonymous, started building their collection five years ago with a focus to support emerging artists in Singapore and Southeast Asia, though they have been collecting widely for more than a decade.
Emerging is the inaugural showcase of selected works collected in the past five years featuring 16 Singapore-based artists. These works reflect some of Singapore’s emerging urgencies in recent years by responding to themes of identity, migration, urbanisation, the environment, places and spaces. The exhibition seeks not only to stimulate new conversations on Singapore contemporary art through the lens of private collectors, but also to expand on their role in the art eco-system as imperative patrons of the arts.
The Private Museum (TPM) Singapore is pleased to present Search and Discover: The Joy of Collecting – Selections from the Yeap Lam Yang Collection. TPM revisits its foundation of bridging the private and the public in this year’s final and largest exhibition that forms part of the museum’s 10th anniversary programming, featuring an array of private collections in Singapore.
Co-curated by Aaron Teo and Beverly Yong, the exhibition features 65 carefully selected works by 35 artists from the Asia-Pacific region from the Yeap Lam Yang collection, spanning over three decades. While the works are categorically small—the exhibition’s curatorial theme intentionally limits the size of the works to 60 cm by 60 cm—there is nary a “smallness” in their significance. Each work is precious and treasured, each a symbolic step into the collector’s foray into the art world as a patron and supporter of the arts.
Search and Discover: The Joy of Collecting unravels the process of exhibition-making and reveals the joy of collecting; discovering and revisiting artists, a rekindling of old relationships, and a forging of new ones. Yeap Lam Yang’s apt reminder that “there is good art everywhere waiting to be uncovered” is an invitation to all viewers to chart their individual, personal journeys in search and discovery of art and artists, new and familiar.