Sullivan+Strumpf, T:>Works and National Gallery Singapore, DECK Photography Art Centre, White Cube Hong Kong, Manar Abu Dhabi and more

Seeing Through Matter

Kanchana Gupta, work in progress in the studio, August 2025. Photo by Toni Cuhadi.

Featuring new works from artists Kanchana Gupta, Gregory Hodge, and Alex Seton, Seeing Through Matter is the latest exhibition at Sullivan+Strumpf curated by Yvonne Wang. The artists’ works converge through their materially grounded practices, and the exhibition explores how surfaces, textures, and forms negotiate the unstable thresholds between presence and absence. Across sculpture, weavings, and mixed media paintings, material encounter becomes a form of resistance against immediacy, legibility, and the seamless visibility that defines a digitally mediated presence.

Seeing Through Matter is on show from 30 October to 6 December 2026 at Sullivan+Strumpf, Singapore. More information here.

24-Hour Playwriting Competition 2025

At the intersection of two milestone celebrations, T:>Works and National Gallery Singapore mark their 40th and 10th anniversaries respectively with a co-production of the 24-Hour Playwriting Competition 2025. A T:>Works legacy programme, the competition has been a cornerstone of Singapore’s arts scene for the past 25 years, serving as a platform to nurture budding playwrights of all ages and backgrounds.

In this year’s iteration, the site-specific programme invites participants to write a play under 24 hours in response to two installations, Angin Cloud by Art Labor, and Eidolon by Vong Phaophanit and Claire Oboussier, both commissioned under the Gallery’s 𝘖𝘜𝘛𝘉𝘖𝘜𝘕𝘋 series. The winning scripts will be chosen by a jury panel that includes curator Adele Tan, writer Myle Yan Tay, as well as theatremaker Tan Shou Chen. These selected scripts will be developed and staged through a mentoring programme with established directors, actors, and dramaturgs, culminating in the Dramatised Reading programme in early 2026.

24-Hour Playwriting Competition 2025 will occur from 15 November to 16 November at the National Gallery Singapore. For more information on the programme, or to participate, please visit here.

Framing Tomorrow

Lai Yu Tong, *Dead Squirrel (Whitewash)*, 2025, archival print, 29.7cm x 42cm. Image courtesy of the artist.

DECK Photography Art Centre announces its long-awaited launch of Shop–House, an interim space consisting of two shophouses at Geylang Lorong 24 for its programmes until the reopening of DECK at Prinsep Street in 2028. To celebrate this new chapter, a slew of programmes will be offered to the public and its community of donors, supporters, and friends across one fundraising week entitled Framing Tomorrow.

First is the new site’s inaugural exhibition, A Home Away From Home, curated by John Tung. Transforming the shophouse setting into a welcoming cultural home, the exhibition will feature and sell 31 artworks donated by 25 artists, with all proceeds supporting DECK’s permanent building fund. A new collaborative programme under Shop–House will be unveiled as well, in the form of a residency entitled Open Page. Designed for independent arts publishers, the programme will welcome its first resident, Kalev Erickson from the Archive of Modern Conflict, London. As part of his residency, he will lead a workshop fostering dialogue on archives and photobooks. DECK will also host its annual Benefit Dinner on the opening weekend of the fundraiser, followed by a launch party with immersive art tours, and artist-led activities.

Framing Tomorrow will be from 7 to 16 November. More information here.

Thresholds

Arahmaiani, *Song of the Rainbow #13*, 2020, acrylic on canvas, (each panel) 60 x 60cm. Photo by White Cube (Kitmin Lee).

White Cube Hong Kong presents Thresholds, a group exhibition curated by Galuh Sukardi. The showcase features the work of nine contemporary artists, Galuh Anindita, Arahmaiani, Christine Ay Tjoe, Nadiah Bamadhaj, Kei Imazu, Ines Katamso, I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih (Murni), Citra Sasmita, and Jennifer Tee, whose practices are rooted in or are connected to Indonesia.

Using the concept of the black-and-white Balinese poleng cloth traditionally used to adorn statues, shrines, and sacred trees, as a point of departure, the exhibition explores the interwoven cycles of life, while charting the personal journeys of transformation undertaken by each artist which are shaped by the crossing of a “threshold”. In collaboration with The Hari Hong Kong, the exhibition will also be extended to the hotel’s public spaces through a selection of works from the nine artists.

Thresholds is on view at White Cube Hong Kong from 31 October 2025 to 10 January 2026, and at The Hari Hong Kong from 31 October 2025 to 31 March 2026. More information here.

Manar Abu Dhabi

Organised by the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), the second edition of the Manar Abu Dhabi will take on the theme of The Light Compass. Curated by Artistic Director Khai Hori, the public light art exhibition will extend beyond Abu Dhabi to Al Ain for the first ever. Drawing on the Gulf’s ancestral relationship with light, the showcase will feature more than 19 light-based installations that respond to the presence, behaviour, and resonance of light, while contextualising light within the cities’ traditions of navigation in orienting seafarers and desert nomads, to instigating poetic modes of knowledge and communication.

Set across the region’s diverse landscapes, the displays will unfold across mangroves, sandbanks, gardens, and urban edges where artworks. The works include newly commissioned pieces by Emirati and international artists to form a breathing constellation that acts as a living map of the emirate. As part of Public Art Abu Dhabi’s ongoing commitment to enhance the emirate’s public spaces through art, a dynamic public programme of talks, workshops, and performances will accompany the exhibition.

Manar Abu Dhabi is open to the public in Al Ain from 1 November 2025 to 4 January 2026, and Abu Dhabi from 15 November 2025 to 4 January 2026. More information here.

Affordable Art Fair

This November, Affordable Art Fair Singapore returns to the F1 Pit Building with its continued mission of making art accessible to all. Audiences can expect 95 galleries, hands-on workshops, live artist takeovers, and immersive installations that mix regional showcases with family-friendly activities that bring people closer to the creative process. This year’s edition also deepens its focus on Southeast Asia with the Ubah Rumah Art Residency Showcase, with works that explore ideas of ecology, care, and hospitality. The fair also continues its partnership with the Caregiving Welfare Association (CWA). Workshops and activities will be offered by CWA at the fair, with proceeds supporting their ongoing work with caregivers and seniors.

Affordable Art Fair is from 13 to 16 November 2025 at the F1 Pit Building, Singapore. You can purchase your tickets here.

To Carry More Than Air

Renz Baluyot, *Soft Weight of Silence*, 2025, oil on canvas, 152.5 x 152.5cm. Image courtesy of Galleria Duemila.

To Carry More Than Air, curated by Leslie de Chavez, takes as its point of departure an ancient saying, “hanggang sa huling hininga” (“breath then is the fragile line that defines the final threshold where life gives way to death”). Bringing together 10 artists—Alee Garibay, Christopher Zamora, Guen Decena, Janrey Llegue, Jelly Jimenez, Joen Sudlon, Jomar Galutera, Lymuel Bautista, Lyn Patricio, and Renz Baluyot—this extensive showcase explores the phenomenon of breathing as a way of taking in and engaging with the world. Paintings are marked by wild, expansive strokes that enact the motion of exhalation, while meticulously controlled drawings carefully calibrate each line, mark, and colour to express a deliberate intake of air. Through the panoply of works across various mediums, the exhibition offers space for audiences to contemplate the fragility, continuity, and intensity of life.

To Carry More Than Air is up for view from now until 22 November 2025 at Galleria Duemila, Philippines. More information here.

ALIVE

Bophana Center commemorates 50 years of remembrance with their landmark exhibition, ALIVE, a solo exhibition of Cambodian photographer Kim Hak’s works. Curated by Moeng Meta and under the creative direction of Rithy Panh, the exhibition focuses on the intimate objects concealed and kept by Cambodians through the Khmer Rouge regime that Hak has documented for over a decade. From photographs and kettles, to family heirlooms and clothing, Hak traces the movements of these memory vessels as they travel across the world with the diaspora, or remain in Cambodia for safekeeping. The exhibition is presented in four chapters, Cambodia (Alive I), Australia (Alive II), New Zealand (Alive III), and Japan (Alive IV), offering a comprehensive view of Cambodia’s intertwined histories of survival, migration, and return.

ALIVE is up for display from now until 15 November 2025 at the Bophana Center, Cambodia. More information here.

November 2025 Round-Up

October 2025 Round-Up