Name: Curator Tour | He Xiangning: Ink & Intent
Start: 2026-05-15T19:30:00+08:00
End: 2026-05-15T20:30:00+08:00
Location: 1 St. Andrew’s Road, Singapore, Singapore 178957

Curator Tour | He Xiangning: Ink & Intent
Fri 15 May | 7.30pm – 8.30pm | National Gallery Singapore, City Hall Wing, Level 4, Wu Guanzhong Gallery (Exhibition Entrance near Lift Lobby A) | Registration required, $55 (Standard) and $50 (Concession): https://www.nationalgallery.sg/sg/en/guided-tours/Curator-Tour-He-Xiangning-Ink-and-Intent.html
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Led by Curator Lim Shujuan, this special evening tour will offer an in-depth exploration of the artistic and ideological world of He Xiangning. A pioneering woman artist, she was also a social activist who used artistic expression to convey ideas of resilience, solidarity and women’s agency.
Moving through the exhibition, we will consider how her recurring motifs, plum blossoms, lions and tigers, speak both to personal fortitude and to a nation in transformation. Situating her works within the political upheavals of modern China, this tour invites you to reflect on the entanglement of art and social ideas. Through close reading of her paintings, poems, calligraphies and archival materials, we will trace how ink morphs into intent — and how art becomes testimony to a turbulent age.
Please note that this curator tour will be delivered in English and take place after exhibition opening hours.
In addition to the tour, you will also receive two All Access tickets, valid for 3 months (worth $30 for Singaporeans/PRs, $60 for Other Nationalities).
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About the Curator
Shujuan Lim is Curator at National Gallery Singapore. Her research interests include early 20th century visual culture and art. Exhibitions that she has (co)curated includes “Tchang Ju Chi: Tireless Camel”; "Georgette Chen: At Home in the World” (2020; 2025) and ”Chua Mia Tee: Directing the Real” (2021).
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About the Exhibition
Presented in Singapore for the very first time, this is the largest travelling exhibition of artist He Xiangning’s (何香凝) (b. 1878, China; d. 1972, China) artworks from the He Xiangning Art Museum (Shenzhen, China).
A leading ink artist and a prominent political figure, He Xiangning played an important role in the development of modern China. One of the earliest Chinese women to pursue art studies in Japan, she was closely connected to the Lingnan school. Works such as ”Lion” (1914), along with her notable fundraising art exhibitions in Singapore and Manila in 1929, demonstrate how she fused political and social ideals through her art.
Featuring over 50 ink works and extensive archival materials, the exhibition reconnects He Xiangning's artistic activities and significance to Chinese modern art, Singapore, Penang and the region’s art history.

Image credit: He Xiangning. Detail of “Pine and Chrysanthemums”. 1931. Ink and colour on paper, 173 × 273 cm. Collection of He Xiangning Art Museum. Image courtesy of the Museum.