Take a tour through SMU’s vibrant city campus to see the SMU Art Collection, which features contemporary art from Singapore and Southeast Asia. 

In the heart of the arts and cultural precinct is a university campus that houses a diverse and lively collection of contemporary art from Singapore and Southeast Asia. Take a tour through the SMU Art Collection with docents detailing stories about the artists, the artworks, and the history of SMU against the backdrop of little-seen spaces within the bustling campus.  

Tours range from one to two hours, and covers up to three collections. The three collections are the Chua Ek Kay’s Street Scenes Collection in the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, the Milenko Prvački Collection in the School of Economics, and the Thukhuma Collection of contemporary paintings from Myanmar in the School of Social Sciences and School of Economics.

GUIDED TOURS

Guided tours are by appointment only on weekdays from 10am to 7pm, and require a minimum of three participants and is subject to the availability of docents. To make an appointment, drop us an email at artcollection[at]smu.edu.sg.

ABOUT THE COLLECTIONS

The Street Scenes Collection is a suite of 30 Chinese ink paintings spanning two decades of Chua’s artistic practice, from 1986 to 2006, and pictures narrow alleyways, temples of worship, old shophouses and historic sites in Singapore. Chua’s depictions of Singapore city streets—from Little India to Ann Siang Hill—are suffused with feelings of melancholy as he captures history passing through the once-familiar streets he has seen grown, thrived, and waned over time. 

Paintings by Chua Ek Kay at the Lee Kong Chian School of Business

The Milenko Prvački Collection is a generous loan collection from the artist, comprising 43 paintings spanning two decades from 1994 to 2014. Born in Yugoslavia, Prvački first came to Singapore 1991 and has since been living and working here as artist and an arts educator. In 2012, he was conferred the prestigious Cultural Medallion Award for visual arts. The collection consists largely of small intimate works that flit between abstraction and figuration, and demonstrates his exploration of painting as a language and cultural system.

Artworks by Milenko Prvački at the School of Economics

The Thukhuma Collection comprises paintings largely dating from the transitional decade of the 2010s and present multiple artistic perspectives on a society in reform—from the streets of Yangon to idyllic rural landscapes, portraits of ordinary people to political icons, scenes of protest and crisis to survival and resilience. 

Artworks by Aung Myint and Brang Li from the Thukhuma Collection on display at the School of Economics