Curator, writer and artist based in Singapore.
I make exhibitions and write about what happens when people encounter art

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About Shirley Wong

I am a Singapore-based curator and writer working across exhibition-making, audience research and public interpretation. My practice explores how people encounter, interpret and remember art, with particular interests in contemporary Asian art, digital mediation and cultural infrastructure

Curatorial Practice & Criticism

My curatorial work develops exhibitions, digital projects and interpretive frameworks that connect artworks with the social and institutional conditions around them. Recent projects include Hypnagogia, Bodies/Spaces: Embodied Worlds and COP OUT. My criticism and research extend these enquiries through questions of attention, mediation and audience experience.

I also started Art Padi, an independent arts publication about exhibitions, biennales, audiences and cultural encounter.

Through essays, criticism and field-based writing, I explore not only what artworks mean, but what happens when people meet them: how they move, where their attention settles, what they overlook and what they remember.

Artistic Practice

My artistic practice is research-led and often takes the form of text, field observation, image-making and editorial structures. I work with fragments, encounters and acts of interpretation to examine how meaning is constructed, withheld and remembered.

Cultural Writing & Museum Research

I write cultural essays, exhibition criticism and field notes for museum publications including PASSAGE. As a docent guide and trainer at the Asian Civilisations Museum, I also research and interpret objects through histories of migration, trade, belief and cultural exchange. These activities inform my wider research into museums, exhibitions and public experience.

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  • Venice, Italy · 2026 · Group exhibition

    Co-curated during the summer of 2026, Hypnagogia explored the transitional state between wakefulness and sleep. Bringing together works by emerging Italian artists, Aurora Basso, Gaia Ghioni, Giorgio Contin and Thomas Antonelli, the exhibition considered the mind’s compulsion to recognise patterns and construct meaning from ambiguous forms.

    The exhibition took place in Galleria 10 & zero uno, Castello 1830, via Garibaldi, Venice, from 26 June 2026 to 29 June 2026

    Role: Co-curator; conceptual development and exhibition visual communications.

  • Singapore · 2025 · Digital curatorial project

    Developed with works from the collections of NUS Museum and National Gallery Singapore, Bodies/Spaces: Embodied Worlds examined the body as image, container, political instrument and site of relation.

    The project unfolded through three movements—Moving to Contain, Moving to Reflect and Moving to Embrace—and included works by Ng Eng Teng, Liu Kang, Ho Soon Yeen, Lee Wen, Amanda Heng and Kara Inez.

    Watch the digital exhibition video

    Role: Curatorial concept, research, artwork selection and digital interpretation.

  • Asia Pacific · 2026 (Ongoing) · Curatorial Collective

    COP OUT is a socially engaged project examining climate discourse, public space and collective action. Developed through a curatorial collective, it considers how artistic and curatorial practice can move beyond symbolic declarations towards more participatory forms of environmental engagement.

    Role: Member of the curatorial collective

  • International · Ongoing · Independent publication

    Art Padi is my independent arts publication about exhibitions, biennales, audiences and cultural encounter.

    Through essays, criticism and field-based writing, I examine not only what artworks mean, but what happens when people encounter them: how they move, where their attention settles, what they overlook and what they remember.

    Role: Founder, editor and writer.

    Read Art Padi here

  • London, United Kingdom · 2024 · Artwork

    Twisting Words is a research-led artwork developed during the Contemporary Fine Art Practice programme at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.

    The work forms part of my artistic enquiry into language, interpretation and the ways meaning can shift through processes of framing and transformation.

    The artwork was featured in CREATE Magazine

    Role: Artist

  • Singapore · Ongoing · Arts and heritage writing

    I contribute public-facing essays on art, museums, heritage and cultural histories to PASSAGE, the magazine of Friends of the Museums Singapore.

    My writing uses individual objects, exhibitions and sites as starting points for wider stories about migration, trade, belief, material culture and cultural exchange. These essays form part of my broader interest in translating specialist research into writing that remains accessible without losing complexity.

    Role: Contributing writer

    Read selected essays:

Background

My path into the arts has been shaped by more than fifteen years in strategic communications, investor relations and institutional storytelling across Asia. This experience informs how I think about audiences, public language and the narratives organisations construct around themselves.

I now bring these perspectives into curatorial practice, artistic research and writing, moving between critical inquiry and accessible forms of cultural communication.

Education & Training

Masters of Arts (Arts & Cultural Entrepreneurship)
National University of Singapore, Singapore

Postgraduate Diploma, Asian Art
SOAS University of London, United Kingdom

Venice Curatorial Course
Venice Curatorial Course, Italy

Contemporary Fine Art Practice
Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, United Kingdom

Art Writing
Sotheby’s Institute of Art, United States

Bachelor of Science (Hons), Management
University of Manchester, United Kingdom

Get in Touch.