The usual theme of Singaporean visual arts are abstractions, human figure, landscape, portraits, still life, urban scenes, and village scenes. Some of the known artists are Tan Swie Hian, Liu Kang, Georgette Chen, Francis Ng and Heman Chong.

Sculpture can be considered the original art of prehistoric man. Ng Eng Teng is considered to be the Grandfather of Singapore’s Sculpture. Ng Eng Teng was the first local who is best known for his sculpture works, some of his works include Mother and Child bronze sculpture outside toe Far East Shopping Center and The Explorer situated at the entrance of Singapore Art Museum. Another known sculptor of Singapore is Lim Nang Seng, the one who designed the Singapore’s first batch of one-cent coins in 1967.

In 1976 the establishment of Art Gallery in National Museum gave a major boost to the Singaporean visual art. Local artists were given opportunity to hold their exhibits. By the 1995 the Singaporean Art Museum was founded exclusively for visual arts.

Architecture

The architecture of Singapore has been greatly inspired by the socio-historic developments. Being a British colony many of the early civic and government buildings were built by colonial architects adopting classical colonial designs being patterned after the Indian colonial buildings. There are also less imposing Malay structures belonging to Malays and other migrant communities.

Singapore’s architecture exhibits a range of influence and style from different places and periods. The traditional colonial architectural design includes the gothic for churches; Chinese chophouse and bungalow, Palladian and renaissance styles for government buildings. Some of the examples traditional architecture are architecture are the Singapore Art Museum, Raffles Hotel, Old Parliament House, Chinese Protectorate, Churches of St. Peter and Paul, Shophouses with elaborate pilasters and Singapore National Museum.

The exigency of tropical climate considerably determined the structure of the country’s private buildings. A mixture of classical and Malayan styles evolved with the constructions that paid scrupulous attention to flooding, humidity and ventilation. In order to suit Singaporean’s lifestyle and differing individual demands concept of mass-produced buildings keeps on altering.

Singapore’s modern architecture is dominated by completely contemporary style of buildings, mainly the Brutalist style that is evident in many high rise flats of public housing as well as many old commercial and government linked buildings like Temasek Tower, DBS Buildings and Singapore Land Tower.

Culture

A comparatively modern amalgam of semi-indigenous Malay population in which majority are third generation Chinese, Indians and Arab immigrants with intermarriage, with existing Eurasian community and Peranakan (Chinese and Malay descents) is a way to describe Singaporean culture.