Zhu Hong, Geylang Vibrancy 芽笼的美好时代, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 150 x 120 cm
In conjunction with Singapore Gallery Month and SG60 celebrations, artcommune presents this special showcase featuring around 25 works drawn from the private collection of Singaporean art patron, Stephen Teo. What began in 2014 as a personal collection of Singapore artists’ works has since evolved into a family-led commitment and broader philanthropic mission—to champion Singapore’s cultural legacy by supporting local artistic talents, especially living artists, through acquisition, visibility, and engagement. Guided by this vision, Stephen Teo hopes to inspire his children to embrace a lifelong dedication to cultural philanthropy and stewardship, while encouraging others to play a vital role in fostering artistic legacies that might otherwise be lost to time.
Roots & Resonance features a curated selection of works by Singapore artists Lim Tze Peng, Tay Bak Koi, Koeh Sia Yong, Ong Kim Seng, Melissa Meng, Kevin Tan, Tung Yue Nang, and Zhu Hong. The display spans oil, watercolour, acrylic, ink, and woodcut, and traces Singapore’s evolving landscape and cultural identity from the 1980s to the present. Through scenes both familiar and forgotten, these works invite viewers to reflect on how place becomes memory, how progress reshapes identity, and how everyday life is etched into the textures of a nation in transformation.
From the tranquil kampongs, bustling riverside and market trades of the past to the rising skyline of a modern metropolis, the works document the vanishing rhythms of daily life and preserve these lived moments amid a rapidly changing landscape. In many instances, the artists confront the realities of urban development head-on, juxtaposing old and new, memory and ambition. Singapore’s cultural hybridity and the daily experiences of a multicultural society are also vividly expressed in many of these scenes. Temples, shophouses, and colonial architecture appear not only as structures but as symbols of shared heritage, usually in environments inhabited by human figures—hawkers, families, children, office workers—going about their daily routines.
Through brush and pigment, our artists preserve memories, respond to transformation, and express the lived experience of a multicultural society in flux. More than a chronicle of physical change, their works speak to personal and collective memory—rooted in tradition, yet resonant with the present. As Singapore marks 60 years of nationhood, Roots & Resonance brings to fore the enduring dialogue between art and identity and provides an art-historical lens through which we commemorate our past and celebrate how we move forward.
Venue: artcommune gallery, 76 Bras Basah Road, #01-01 Carlton Hotel, Singapore 189558
When: 2 - 17 Aug 2025, 12noon - 7pm
