National Gallery Singapore
About the Museum
National Gallery Singapore occupies two of the grandest colonial buildings in the city, the former Supreme Court and the former City Hall, which stand side by side facing the Padang, the open green where Singapore's history has so often been made. The buildings were joined by the French architect Jean-François Milou with a filigree metal roof and glass bridges, and the museum opened in November 2015. It holds the world's largest public collection of modern art from Singapore and Southeast Asia, some nine thousand works from the nineteenth century to the present, and it is as much a museum of architecture and memory as of painting.
The City Hall wing holds the DBS Singapore Gallery, whose long-term exhibition, Singapore Stories, follows the island's art from colonial topographical views through the Nanyang painters of the 1950s to installation and performance. The Supreme Court wing normally holds the UOB Southeast Asia Gallery, tracing the art of the whole region across two floors; that gallery closed in April 2026 for a major refit and is due to reopen in late 2027, with an interim show of regional works from October 2026. Around the galleries are the historic rooms themselves: the City Hall Chamber, the domed rotunda library, the old courtrooms and holding cells, and a roof terrace looking over Marina Bay.
Allow half a day. Singapore residents enter the permanent galleries free; visitors from abroad pay for a general admission ticket. The building is fully air-conditioned and a good place to escape the midday heat.
Before You Go
- Enter from the Padang Atrium on St Andrew's Road or the Coleman Street side; both lead to visitor services and the ticket counters on level one.
- The UOB Southeast Asia Gallery in the Supreme Court wing is closed for renovation until late 2027; check the website for the interim Southeast Asian exhibition that opens in October 2026.
- Free guided tours of the building and of the Singapore gallery run daily in English; the architecture tour is the best way to see the courtrooms, holding cells and rotunda.
- Photography without flash is allowed in the permanent galleries; tripods are not.
- The Supreme Court Terrace and the Ng Teng Fong Roof Garden Gallery on the top floor have views over the Padang and Marina Bay Sands; the sunset is worth planning for.
- Leave bags in the free lockers on the basement level; the galleries are extensive and warm outside, cool inside.
- City Hall MRT station is directly across the road; the gallery connects to it by underground passage.
Collection Areas
Highlights
9 works. Each work has a full written and audio guide.
