National Gallery Singapore is giving one of the country’s most overlooked artists her due. Lai Foong Moi: Crossings opens on 14 August 2026 and runs all the way to 3 October 2027, and it is the first solo presentation of Lai Foong Moi (1931–1995) since the 1960s.
That gap is the story here. Lai was a trailblazing female artist in a Nanyang art scene largely remembered through its men, and she spent much of her career teaching at her alma mater, the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, shaping a generation of Singaporean artists in the process.
Stillness in a country in a hurry
The exhibition gathers striking artworks alongside archival material, spanning portraiture, still life and landscape painting. What emerges is a quieter counter-narrative to the familiar account of Singapore’s transformation in the 1960s and 1970s.
Where the national story of those decades is one of speed, construction and nation-building, Lai’s canvases dwell on moments of stillness and on ordinary, nostalgic scenes. It is an alternative facet of a country in transition, seen from the inside rather than from the vantage point of policy.
Part of the Dalam Singapore series
Crossings is the second edition of the Gallery’s Dalam Singapore exhibition series, which sets out to surface lesser-known figures and stories from Singapore’s art history. Presenting rarely seen works by an underexplored artist is exactly the brief, and a nearly 14-month run gives visitors an unusually generous window to catch it.
Visiting Lai Foong Moi: Crossings
- Dates: 14 August 2026 to 3 October 2027
- Venue: DBS Singapore Gallery 3, Level 2, City Hall Wing, National Gallery Singapore
- Admission: General Admission ticket required; free for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents
- More information: nationalgallery.sg
Planning a wider arts weekend? See our write-ups on the Singapore Art Museum’s Hello Future: Adventure Awaits and its Momentary Pulses public art trail.
Image credits: National Gallery Singapore.
