Singapore's Summer Gallery Scene Explores Perception, Memory, and Social Practice

A review of Singapore's current gallery exhibitions highlights Tropic of Perception at Ames Yavuz Gallery as a standout group show exploring fluid human perception. The exhibition features six artists, including Pam Virada, whose 2025 work Seaside Highway uses a frosted glass panel with enigmatic text and a video projection of a river to play with transparency and meaning. Vong Phaophanit and Claire Oboussier present Les Beaux Restes (2024), delicate pewter casts of dog-chew bones. Chemi Rosado-Seijo contributes maps assembled from paint flakes scraped from houses in El Cerro, Puerto Rico, where he has conducted social-practice initiatives, including painting facades green and establishing an art hub. His works Los Sures se besan (2025) and Palestina echa de mapas inconclusos (2025) reference South America, Africa, and Israel with the Occupied Territories. At Gillman Barracks, other notable shows include Figure at Ota Fine Arts, featuring Zai Kuning's batik-dye-on-paper works and Maria Farrar's portraits. Fost Gallery hosts 1 x 1 x 1, with works under one cubic metre, such as Sebastian Mary Tay's 2018 giclée prints and Hazel Lim's paper works embroidered with colored threads. Solo exhibitions include I Made Djirna's earth-toned canvases at Mizuma Gallery, Han Mengyun's monochrome paintings at ShanghART, and Malaysian painter Noor Mahnun (Anum)'s oil paintings at Yeo Workshop, featuring works like Boxers (2025) and the Leaf Monkey series (2022–24).