From 21 to 30 January 2027, Thai artist Pinaree Sanpitak takes over the upper floor of 72-13, a former rice warehouse on Mohamed Sultan Road, and fills it with artworks, plants, scent, shared meals, and performances. It’s the offsite headliner of ART SG 2027, and for anyone in Singapore who has ever felt underdressed at an art fair, it’s the friendliest way into Singapore Art Week’s 15th edition.
The main fair is back too. ART SG returns to Marina Bay Sands for its fifth edition from 22 to 24 January 2027, with Southeast Asian platform S.E.A. Focus under the same roof for a second year. There’s money on the table as well: a S$250,000 museum acquisition fund and a US$10,000 prize for an emerging artist, and it helps to know exactly who each one is for.
A Rice Warehouse Becomes a Living Room
The exhibition is called How We Hold What’s Possible. Movement II, and it’s curated by Victor Wang, Executive Director of Artspace Sydney, which co-presents it with ART SG. The venue, 72-13, is the home of arts company T:>Works, the Presenting Partner. A building once organised around storing rice becomes, for ten days, a place to sit down and stay a while.
Sanpitak is bringing works from across her career:
- Noon-Nom (2025)
- Ma-lai (2025 to 2026)
- Khid Pillows (2017 onwards)
- Her Gathering Tables
- Paintings, vessels, and modular shelving designed for this show
She arranges them the way she has always worked on paper. “When I set up these things, also in Singapore, it’s like a collage,” she says in the curatorial notes.
Then the room keeps changing. The organisers describe it as a gathering place for conversations, communal meals, performances, workshops, and music, with the full programme to be announced closer to January. Wang says the aim is “making space for people in Singapore to join the conversation, to gather, share, eat, listen and contribute”, which is a far cry from the usual look-don’t-touch gallery etiquette!
Who Is Pinaree Sanpitak?
Across more than four decades, Sanpitak has built a whole vocabulary of forms out of the body: breasts, vessels, stupas, fruits, mounds, pillows, clouds, and tables. Her best-known motif, the Breast Stupa, merges the curve of a breast with the dome of a Buddhist stupa, so that a bodily shape becomes something closer to architecture.
That might sound heavy, but her own explanation is disarmingly simple. “It’s not just about the woman,” she says. “A lot of it is about being human, sharing space, and how we interact with each other.”
The Singapore show is also the middle chapter of a three-year collaboration with Artspace:
- September 2026: a public conversation in Sydney, where the collaboration began
- January 2027: Movement II at 72-13 in Singapore
- 2028: a major solo exhibition at Artspace, where it ends
So what happens at 72-13 doubles as a testing ground for the big one.
The Artwork You Can Eat
The exhibition opens with a new edition of Breast Stupa Cookery by Chef Ivan Brehm of Nouri Restaurant.
This is where the “art you can’t touch” problem dissolves. “Food becomes the art medium and connection,” Sanpitak says, and she has form here. For a 2020 presentation at Nova Contemporary in Bangkok, the gallery was converted into a dining hall, with chefs Joe Napol Jantraget and Saki Hoshino cooking. A meal is the easiest art to understand, because everyone already knows how to share a table.
Where the S$250,000 Goes
The headline figure belongs to the SAM ART SG Fund, back for a third year with S$250,000. The fund buys works shown at the fair for the Singapore Art Museum’s (SAM) permanent collection. The Fund enables SAM to acquire works by leading and emerging artists presented at the fair. It’s supported by patrons Carmen Yixuan Li, Pure Yichun Chen, Pierre Lorinet, and anonymous donors.
The payoff for everyone else comes later, when those works go on show at SAM. Past buys include:
- 2026: Mona Hatoum’s Inside Out (concrete) and three pieces by Lotus Kang
- 2025: works by Kim Yun Shin, Kapwani Kiwanga, and Vietnamese artist Lêna Bùi
The direct cash is the ART SG FUTURES Prize Presented by UBS, which awards US$10,000 to one emerging artist in the fair’s FUTURES sector. That sector is reserved for new works made for the fair, shown by galleries established within the last ten years.
The inaugural winner in 2026 was Filipino-Canadian artist Marigold Santos, represented by Canadian gallery Patel Brown. Born in Manila, she called the win “incredibly affirming and encouraging” and said it brought a wider Asian audience to her work. So young artists can’t walk in and claim funding, but the FUTURES booths are the ones to watch for who’s next.
Better Worlds, Same Roof
S.E.A. Focus, commissioned by the National Arts Council and now in its ninth edition, sits alongside ART SG at Marina Bay Sands again. Curator John Tung has themed it Better Worlds, around artists looking at life in a hyper-connected world.
He frames it as a question: “As our lives become more connected, what kind of world do we want to create?” For a feel of the format, DANAMIC’s look at S.E.A. Focus 2024 is a useful primer.
The names behind both shows aren’t out yet. Participating artists and galleries for ART SG and S.E.A. Focus will be announced in November 2026, according to the organisers.
South Asia gets its own corner as well. The TVS Initiative for Indian and South Asian Contemporary Art returns for a second year with South Asia Insights, a dedicated pavilion, plus curator-led tours. It’s led by New Delhi-based writer and curator Srinivas Aditya Mopidevi of Studio Public Memory.
Plan Your Art Week
Which one to pick
- Only one free evening that week: go to 72-13. A room built for eating and talking asks far less of a newcomer than a hall of gallery booths.
- A whole weekend: pair 72-13 with the fair and make a beeline for FUTURES. The fair has grown since 2024, when DANAMIC reported that 116 galleries took part.
What to do now
- Block out 21 to 30 January 2027 for the 72-13 show, and 22 to 24 January for the fair.
- Check back in November 2026, when the participating artists and galleries for ART SG and S.E.A. Focus are announced.
- Watch for the full 72-13 programme, which will be announced closer to January.
Pinaree Sanpitak: How We Hold What’s Possible. Movement II
- 🗓️ Date: Thursday, 21 January to Saturday, 30 January 2027
- 📍 Location: 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road, Singapore 239007
- 🍽️ Opening highlight: Breast Stupa Cookery with Chef Ivan Brehm of Nouri Restaurant
- 🎭 Programme: Conversations, communal meals, performances, workshops, and music
ART SG 2027 and S.E.A. Focus
- 🗓️ Date: Friday, 22 January to Sunday, 24 January 2027
- 📍 Location: Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
- 🏆 FUTURES Prize: US$10,000 to one emerging artist
- 🖼️ SAM ART SG Fund: S$250,000 for Singapore Art Museum acquisitions
Keep an eye on ART SG’s website and @art.sg on Instagram for the November line-up and the full 72-13 programme, follow @seafocus for the Better Worlds artists, and block out those ten days in January now!
Photos and Visuals courtesy of ART SG, S.E.A. Focus, and Ames Yavuz, with portraits by Lee Wei Swee and Arabelle Zhuang.
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