Visiting National Gallery Singapore for the first time

Weeeeee.

A new place to explore! I was sad I wasn’t at the grand opening of the National Gallery last November. We finally got to visit earlier and it was WOW. Impressive!

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Feeling guide ako today.

New covered walkway to get to the National Gallery Singapore from Cityhall MRT.

Getting there. Take the MRT to Cityhall and look for Exit B. At ground level, follow the signs and covered walkway which leads around the corner to National Gallery Singapore.

National Gallery Singapore (the backside, coming from Cityhall MRT).

Entrance fee. The ticketing area is located at the basement level of the gallery. For non-Singaporeans the entrance fee is SGD 20.00. However, I thought it was a better bargain to get the “Gallery Insider” package, at SGD 45.00, which has unlimited access to the permanent galleries for a whole year (apart from other usual perks of “membership”).

“Gallery Insider” card. SGD 45.00 for non-Singaporeans.

The National Gallery Singapore was built to combine two iconic Singapore buildings which are the Supreme Court and the City Hall. For our first trip to the National Gallery, we visited the exhibits at the Supreme Court section.

A splendid ceiling.

City Hall portion.

Supreme Court foyer.

City Hall portion.

Two buildings combined.

The building is spacious and contrary to this bitchy review I read on Facebook, the galleries are of reasonable size. They don’t feel cramped at all– at least not the sections we were enjoying.

We visited the art galleries featuring works from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries and covering those that came from throughout Southeast Asia. I’m not sure if it was a stroke of luck but we encountered a fair amount of artwork from Filipino artists. There were several as well from Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. Such celebration of Southeast Asian art!