Street Art Spotlight: Singapore

Singapore doesn’t seem like it’d be a great place to find street art and murals– it has a reputation for being somewhat restrictive compared to other Southeast Asian cities, after all. Clean, orderly, and sometimes (lovingly) called “sterile.”

But actually there’s quite a few street art initiatives (city-approved!) in various neighborhoods, and it’s well worth walking around to spot them. The murals I’ve seen focus heavily on local history, the communities that make up Singapore’s citizens, and unique aspects of living in Singapore.

They’re also maybe the most well-kept murals I’ve seen in a tropical city; some of these have been on their wall for years and they aren’t worn down OR covered over with tagging. Nice, right?

This post is a compilation of some of the street art I’ve seen during my visits to Singapore over the last few years. At the end of the post I have some resources for learning more about Singapore’s street art initiatives and links to more street art posts on this blog if you want to explore more.

This post contains affiliate links. If you click on a link and buy something, I get a small percentage at no extra cost to you. Your support helps keep this blog running— thank you! Read full disclosure here.

I’ve roughly grouped them into neighborhoods, but there’s some overlap because the art itself overlaps neighborhood lines sometimes.

😎 Are you interested in street art? Here’s some I saw in Chiang Mai, Ipoh, Butterworth and London!

Joo Chiat/Katong

This neighborhood is famous for its Peranakan (Malay-Chinese) heritage and it’s where my favorite Singaporean hostel is located, so I tend to spend most of my time here. It also just to happens to be where some fascinating street art projects have been put up, so there’s a ton to see!

The nice thing about the art walk projects is that they put up signs for the artists, the name of their mural and the history and inspiration behind it. Makes my job very easy because I don’t have to dig for that info!

First up, this beautiful and bright-colored mural:

This was for Artwalk 2022 and it’s still in very good condition, actually. The little info card says they used aerosol (spray paint) and weatherbond, which is a type of paint specially formulated to use on the outside of buildings, so perhaps that’s why.

Here’s a piece very close to Betel Box Backpackers Hostel:

This was commissioned recently by Cartoon Network Asia to celebrate a Tom and Jerry episode set in Singapore. I like how there’s local stuff like the durian and slippers and so on! Here’s a video showing the process of putting it up. There’s also a QR code at the bottom of the wall which goes to this playlist of clips from the show.

📱Psst…need an eSIM for a few days while in Singapore? Going to other Asian countries right after? Snag Airalo’s Asialink regional eSIM which covers most of Asia and save yourself the hassle of getting a new SIM card every time you move!

I love this one! I love sea turtles in general but this mural is especially nice. It’s titled “Turtle Cape” and is a tribute to the meaning of the name “Tanjong Katong” aka turtle cape. This neighborhood used to be a lot smaller, before the land was reclaimed from the sea and extended outward. In the old days, turtles used to come to the beach and lay eggs (according to the info placard).

This same studio has another mural in this post, further down in the Kampong Gelam section.

Next is another favorite mural:

This piece is called “Jalan Jalan.” I’m really annoyed I couldn’t get a better shot without the tree as I LOVE cats, and this mural is so fun! It’s a tribute to stray cats and was for Art Walk 2022. I especially love the bright colors, and how fierce the cats look.

Right across from the cat mural is this one:

This mural is a tribute to the history of the building it’s on, which used to be a clinic for mothers and children. The title is “A History of Healing” and it was put up for the Katong Joo Chiat Art Circuit in 2019.

And here’s a small text stencil:

In a teeny tiny alleyway, I found this huge mural:

It’s basically impossible to photograph because it’s so narrow, but actually there’s two sides to it:

This piece is called “Medley Alley” and it’s by Nicia Lam, Valerie Neo, Novena Angela and Yulus Lam. It’s a collection of “tiles” styled after the popular Peranakan decorative tiles used in houses in the 1920s-1940s. It’s part of the Joo Chiat Art Circuit and went up in 2019.

Next is this large piece by Ink and Clog Studio:

Apparently it’s for a TV show called The Ferryman: Legends of Nanyang, which is about two guys who can see and interact with ghosts, basically.

Here’s a floral mural found on the backside of a building:

I couldn’t find an info placard or a signature, so all I know is it was painted in 2021!

Another big mural I had trouble photographing properly:

This is part of the Katong Joo Chiat Art Circuit. According to the info placard, the streets in this part of Singapore used to flood during the rainy season. In fact, Katong used to flood up to 6 times a year until 1993, when the river was deepened and the problem solved.

The text on the mural was written by Singaporean poet Christine Chia. I like the incorporation of text and images, and how the mural feels so dreamy-nostalgic.

Chinatown

Chinatown is one of the main tourist destinations in Singapore, because it has some of the most interesting temples and a hawker centre with Michelin-star rated food. I need to go back and find some more art, because there’s a lot more than what I found here. Still, have a look:

Yip Yew Chong actually did quite a few murals in Chinatown (here’s a map!). This one is called “Cantonese Opera” and depicts a classic opera stage with an enthusiastic crowd.

Another piece by him I found called “Detective Conan:”

Detective Conan is a popular Japanese manga character! Here he is trying a durian from a local market shop.

I only managed to snag a small close-up of this piece, though it’s super interesting:

This is called “The Path” and was commissioned by the Australian High Commission (along with four other murals).

Here’s a time-lapse video of it going up:

Kampong Gelam

The Kampong Gelam neighborhood is the Arab/Muslim quarter in Singapore and has some really cool mosques, middle eastern restaurants and lots of rug shops. It’s glitzy in a way that weirdly reminds me of the World Showcase in Epcot, so maybe not to everyone’s taste but a good way to spend a few hours walking around. And of course, if you like street art then it has some very large, intricate pieces.

This is located on the side of the Vintage Camera’s Museum, which has some really cool statues in the front (to be spotlighted in another post about public artworks).

Nearby is this mural:

There’s no info plaque so I assume it was an advertisement for something, perhaps? Commissioned by a business?

Another piece by Yip YC who has several pieces in Chinatown (see above). This one is called “The Kampong Gelam Mural” and is very difficult to photograph (with a regular phone anyway) because it’s so huge. But it’s beautiful! All the parts represent different aspects of life in Kampong Gelam. There’s some close-ups and more about the piece on the artist’s website.

Final Thoughts

Singapore’s street art scene is as diverse as its culture, whether you’re into bold, modern murals or subtle pieces that tell stories of the past.

I really enjoy the way Singapore has incorporated murals and street art into their buildings, especially in the historic areas where the murals represent a part of the community that lives there. There’s tons more to see than what I managed to capture, and it seems like every year they add more, so I’m definitely going to go back and find some the next time I visit!