NAUTI: All Things Naughty and Nautical

ART AGAIN presents NAUTI: All Things Naughty and Nautical, its largest exhibition to date, featuring over 50 works drawn from 15 private collections. Running 22 to 30 August 2026 at Objects.re, Tannery Lane, the exhibition brings together two of the most recurring subjects on the ART AGAIN marketplace and in Singapore’s mid-twentieth-century art: the nautical, in bumboats, rivers and quays; and the body, in nude studies, bathers and figure work.

For the first time, these two subjects are brought into the same room. Painted in the same period and often by the same artists, the two subjects were nevertheless treated, displayed and collected differently. In private homes, one hung where everyone gathered; the other was kept somewhere quieter. NAUTI stages an encounter between them that has rarely, if ever, happened in public.

NAUTI marks three years of ART AGAIN, which launched in 2023 as a secondary market platform connecting buyers and sellers of pre-owned art. Beyond the online marketplace, ART AGAIN stages exhibitions only a handful of times a year, mounting a major show yearly to bring works held in private collections back into public view. NAUTI, its largest and most ambitious presentation yet, marks the platform’s third year in operation.

NAUTI features works by some of the most significant names in Singaporean art. Among them, Chua Ek Kay (1947–2008), celebrated for bridging Chinese ink tradition with Western abstraction, often in scenes of Singapore’s streets and waterways; Anthony Poon (1945–2006), a leading figure in Singapore’s abstract and lyrical movement, known for his sculptural wave reliefs and rigorous explorations of line, colour and form; Cheong Soo Pieng (1917–1983), one of the foundational figures of the Nanyang style whose work shaped the visual language of modern Singaporean art; and Teng Nee Cheong (1951–2013), known for his richly decorative, sensuous compositions drawn from tropical and Balinese imagery, whose nudes are among the finest of his generation.

The exhibition also features works by Lim Tze Peng (b. 1921), Ng Eng Teng (1934–2001), Tay Bak Koi (1939–2005), Sarkasi Said (1940–2021), Chen Cheng Mei (1927–2020), Seah Kim Joo (b. 1939), Wong Keen (b. 1942), Jimmy Ong (b. 1964), Lin Hsin Hsin (b. 1952), Low Puay Hua (b. 1957), Ho Huu Thu (1940-2024), and Henri Chen (b. 1959). Spanning several generations and a wide range of practices, these artists helped shape the language of modern and contemporary art in Singapore.

All works are drawn from private collections and are available for purchase. Many of the artists in NAUTI are also represented in Singapore’s National Collection, and the exhibition offers a rare opportunity to acquire works by figures of that standing, pieces that have long been held in private hands. For collectors, NAUTI provides access across two of the most enduring subjects in Singaporean art, spanning diverse practices and periods.