Eugene Tan is Director of both the the National Gallery Singapore (NGS) and of the Singapore Art Museum(SAM).
Tan has been Director of SAM since March 2019 and Director of NGS since 2013.
Under Tan’s leadership at NGS Tan, the museum has created blockbuster exhibitions including “Reframing Modernism: Painting from Southeast Asia, Europe and Beyond” (2016), Yayoi Kusama’s “Life is the Heart of a Rainbow” (2017), “Century of Light” (2017–18), and “Minimalism: Space. Light. Object” (2018–19).
NGS has also established partnerships with leading international institutions, including Paris’ Centre Pompidou and Museé d’Orsay; South Korea’s National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art; London’s Tate; and Ilham Gallery in Kuala Lumpur. It has showcased major touring exhibitions that highlight art historical dialogues between Southeast Asia and other parts of the world.
For the last four years Tan has been guiding a major renovation USD 90 million project at SAM. On appointing Tan, Edmund Cheng, chair of the SAM Board, said, “We are at an important juncture for our museum’s development as we undergo a major revamp of our premises. We have great confidence in [Tan’s] ability to make a positive impact and advance SAM’s role as a leading museum of contemporary art through a shared vision and strong collaboration with our curators, programmers, and SAM team.”