Susie Lingham
Education
2008 Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) in Literature, Religion and Philosophy : University of Sussex, U.K.
2001 Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching Higher Education (PGDipTHE) : National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
2000 MA (Honours) Writing, Research Degree : University of Western Sydney, Australia.
1990 Diploma in Fine Arts : Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore.
Academic & Administrative Experience
2025 National Institute of Education International,
2025 University of the Arts, Singapore/LASALLE College of the
2019 ~ 2023 Senior Lecturer, Republic Polytechnic, School of Technology for the Arts,
2016 ~ 2020 Adjunct Lecturer, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, School of Art & Design,
2016 ~ 2017 Creative Director, Singapore Biennale 2016 (SB2016), An Atlas of Mirrors.
2013 ~ 2016 Director, Singapore Art Museum (SAM), Singapore.
2009 ~ 2013 Assistant Professor, Visual & Performing Arts, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
2008 ~ 2009 Senior Lecturer, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), Singapore. Oct ~ Dec 2007: Part-time Lecturer; Full-time from
2005 ~ 2007 Associate Tutor, School of Humanities, University of Sussex, U.K.
1999 ~ 2003 Lecturer, LASALLE-SIA, College of the Arts, Singapore.
1996 ~ 1998 Part-time Lecturer & Tutor, University of Western Sydney, Australia.
1991 ~ 1994 Creative Group Head, DNC Consultants Pte. Ltd., Singapore. |Copywriter, DNC Public Relations & Promotions.
1991 ~ 1995 5th Passage Artists Ltd., Singapore.
1991 ~ 1995 Book Theatre, Singapore.
Publications (Selected)
BOOKS / ESSAYS IN BOOKS
• T.K. Sabapathy, Writing the Modern: Selected Texts on Art & Art History in Singapore, Malaysia & Southeast Asia, 1973-2015, edited, with section overviews, by Ahmad Mashadi, Susie Lingham, Peter Schoppert and Joyce Toh, Singapore: Singapore Art Museum, January 2018.
• ‘The Crisis of Context: What holds heterogeneities together’. Essay republished in Histories, Practices, Interventions: A Reader in Singapore Contemporary Art, eds. Jeffrey Say & Seng Yu Jin, pp 105-117. Institute of Contemporary Art, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore, 2016. First published in Text & Subtext. Singapore: Earl Lu Gallery, June 2000, pp 164-75.
• ‘Turning the Curious Corners of Thought: The Synaesthetic Mind & Ways of Knowing in the Arts’. Chapter in Contextualized Practices in Arts Education: An International Dialogue on Singapore, ed. Chee-Hoo Lum, Springer Education Innovation Book Series, 2013, pp 393-433. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-4560-55-9_38
• ‘A Quota on Expression: Visions, Vexations & Vanishings (Contemporary Art in Singapore from the Late 1980s to the Present)’. Essay in Negotiating Home, History and Nation: Two Decades of Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia 1991-2011, Singapore Art Museum, 2011, pp 55- 70.
• ‘The Surface from the Depths: Of Haptic Optics and the Fluid Dynamics of Drawing’. Essay in Aversions, a publication on drawings by Singaporean artists, pp 140-148. Osage, Singapore, 2009.
• an equation of vulnerability (a certain thereness, being). Book, in collaboration with artist Suzann Victor. Singapore: Contemporary Asian Arts Centre (CAAC), April 2002.
ARTICLES IN JOURNALS/MAGAZINES
• ‘A Larger Reality’. Commissioned essay in Cultural Connections, Volume 6, 2021, pp 112-120. Published by Culture Academy, MCCY, Singapore.
• ‘Sotto Voce: What if we haven’t yet asked the right questions?’ Commissioned essay in di’van, A Journal of Accounts, Art|Culture|Theory, December 2019, pp 34-45. Published by University of NSW Art & Design, Sydney, Australia.
• ‘Our Geographies Map Our Histories: A Response to ‘Asian Art Research in Australia and New Zealand: Past Present, Future’. Essay in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, Volume 16, 2016, Issue 2, pp 236-246. Published by Taylor & Francis online 10 November 2016 in http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/raja20/16/2.
• ‘One Island, Many Parallel Paths’. Introductory essay in Singapore, Flash Art Survey, pp 3-6, published by Flash Art, January 2014.
• ‘Art and Censorship in Singapore: Catch 22? Feature article in Art Asia Pacific, Issue 76 Nov/Dec 2011, pp 100-109.
• ‘Ad Libitum: A Fantasia on the Idea of Freedom’. Essay in the Substation’s online Magazine, issue on Freedom and all that Jazz, Sep 2008 in http://www.substation.org/mag/
• Grove Art Online, Oxford University Press – USA. Ed. Christine Kuan. Dictionary entry on the artist Suzann Victor. Reference update launched in September 2005. http://www.groveart.com/shared/views/help.html?topic=H090
• ‘Navel: The Mark of a Vampire’. Essay in FOCAS (Forum on Contemporary Art & Society), No. 2. Singapore: The Necessary Stage, July 2001, pp 49–83.
CATALOGUE ESSAYS
• ‘You, Other; I, Another: A Meditation on Otherness & Belonging; The Works of Art: Living Realities & Shaping Perceptions’. 2-part essay in publication for the exhibition You, Other; I, Another. The Private Museum, Singapore, 17 May-22 July 2018. Curator and editor.
• ‘Thinking Ink’: Improvisations on Cultural Criteria’. Essay in publication for the exhibition
Thinking Ink. Gajah Gallery, Singapore, 28 July-20 August 2017. Curator and editor.
• ‘Our Fractal Realities’. Essay in An Atlas of Mirrors, Singapore Biennale 2016 catalogue, ed. Susie Lingham, published by Singapore Art Museum, 2016, pp 14-17.
• ‘The Art of Inversion: Seeing Backwards, Thinking Forward, Making Oblique’. Essay in IMPRINT: New Works by Suzann Victor, published by STPI for the exhibition (18 January to 21 February 2015), Singapore, pp 8-14.
• ‘a/edge: on keeping balance, exploring the world and being edge-centred’. Essay for a/edge, inaugural visual art exhibition featuring 23 art educators, Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts (STAR), 2012, pp 8-13. Curator, and co-editor of catalogue. Created the original conceptual framework a|edge (‘Art Educators’ Developmental and Generative Explorations’.)
• ‘Mediated Thresholds: Between Ideal, Image and Experience’. Essay in Open House,
Singapore Biennale 2011 catalogue, Singapore Art Museum, 2011, pp 129-136.
• ‘Artifice Stripped Bare: Beauty, Allusion, and Truth, Even: Donna Ong and the Aesthetics of Unadorned Transcendence’. Essay in President’s Young Talents 2009 exhibition catalogue, Singapore Art Museum, September/October 2009, pp 20-35.
• ‘The Curiouser Elephant’. Essay in The Elephant in the Room, University of Huddersfield (U.K.) MA & Degree Graduation Show catalogue. Singapore: Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, 2009.
‘…dreaming the centre’. Creative text in txtrapolis, a publication on text-based art from Singapore, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore. September 2005, pp 52-65.
• ‘Self (and) Portrait: Confessions and Eventual Recantations’. Creative text in Portraits Reassessed, School of Fine Art Faculty Exhibition. Singapore: LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts, August 2002, pp 16–23. Co-editor for catalogue.
• ‘In Her Image’. Essay in the third Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (on the work of Singapore artist Amanda Heng). Brisbane Australia: Queensland Art Gallery, 1999,
pp 128-129.
MEDIA / JOURNAL / BOOK APPEARANCES
• ‘Which is Which?’ At Gajah Gallery, A Survey of Artists from LASALLE & NAFA, Art and Market, 8 December 2023.
⮞ https://artandmarket.net 2023/12
• Sheryl, ‘Thought Sample Return: Susie Lingham’s Expeditions into Inner Space’, Plural Art Magazine, Singapore. August 14, 2022. Review of Thought Sample Return solo exhibition at Gajah Gallery, Singapore.
⮞ https://pluralartmag.com/2022/08/14/thought-sample-return-susie-linghams-expeditions- into-inner-space/
• Adeline Chia, ‘A Guide to Arts and Culture this August’, ArtReview, 3 August 2022. Review of
Thought Sample Return solo exhibition at Gajah Gallery, Singapore.
⮞ https://artreview.com/a-guide-to-arts-and-culture-this-august/
• Huang Lijie, ‘A heart for the arts’, The Straits Times, Singapore. Wednesday, 22 January 2014. Interview on appointment as Director of the Singapore Art Museum.
Mayo Martin, ‘Susie Lingham’s Turn and the delicate act of looking inward’, TODAY, Singapore. 18 January 2013. Review of solo exhibition Turn. (16 Nov – 1 Dec 2012)
⮞ http://www.todayonline.com/blogs/forartssake/susie-linghams-turn-and-delicate-act- looking-inward
• Russell Storer, ‘Susie Lingham’, Contemporary Art in Singapore. Singapore: Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), March 2007. Featured artist.
• Clara Chow, ‘Art Galleries Go Live’. The Straits Times, Life! Arts section, Singapore. Monday, 2 August 2004. (Preview on the interdisciplinary project If the Universe, Between Circle and Ellipse, Slips & tandem exhibition Sounds Like Mirrors.)
Art Practice (Selected)
• Big Bang: A Myth of Origins. Presented artworks in group exhibition curated by Joyce Toh, Gajah Gallery, Singapore. 17 Jan ~ 2 Mar 2025.
• Which is Which? Presented artwork in group exhibition curated by John Tung, Gajah Gallery, Singapore. 24 Nov ~ 10 Dec 2023.
• S.E.A. Focus 2023.
Works shown: Poem-riddles on glass Klein bottles; mixed media paintings: a measure in myrrh and a rhyme in pi. January 2023.
• Thought Sample Return.
Solo visual art exhibition, presented by Gajah Gallery, Singapore. Conceptual sculpture, including core samples of 33 volumes of 1990 Encyclopaedia Britannica; painting-drawings; poem- riddles on glass Klein bottles. 28 Jul ~ 28 Aug 2022.
• 5th Passage: In Search of Lost Time. Artworks presented in group show, curated by John Tung. Presented by Gajah Gallery, Singapore. September 2021.
• Turn. Solo visual art exhibition, presented by The Substation, Singapore. Drawing and text installation: Chronicurls, cabinet-installed drawings (Twinge; Inkling; Rings; set of 3); 64 Shifts, ink on paper, set of 64; glass Klein bottles poem-riddles on (A Full Octave; Around You; Invisible the One; set of 3); limited edition (55) artist’s two-in-one book: An Unkempt Metaphysical Alphabet & A Pseudorandom Pataphysical Alphabet from ink on paper drawings & text, set of 26. 16 Nov ~ 1 Dec 2012.
• Detour. Visual Art Faculty Show, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Curator, and participating artist. Oct 2012.
• If The Universe, Between Circle and Ellipse, Slips.
Interdisciplinary production in tandem with Sounds Like Mirrors (sound & visual exhibition). Director & Curator: conceptualization, text, direction, costume and sound design, and vocal performance. Plastique Kinetic Worms, 61 & 63 Kerbau Road, Singapore. 3 ~ 5 Aug 2004.
Conferences & Presentations (Selected)
•2025 The University of the Arts Singapore (UAS). Education Symposium 2025,
The Work of Art Now: Practices and Pedagogies in Southeast Asia. Invited as panelist.
•2017 International Forum: Exploration of the Turning Point & Revolutionary Development of ‘Anima Machine’. On the works of Korean artist Choe U- Ram’s solo exhibition [stil laif] at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan. Invited as panelist speaker/discussant.
•2017 2017 NTUA Curators of the New Generation Open Call Programme.
National Taiwan University of Arts & Yo-Chang Art Museum, Taipei, Taiwan. Invited to be on the jurors’ panel, and to present at the conference ‘2017 New Curatorial Forum of Taiwan Art’.
•2016 Experimenter Curators’ Hub. Kolkata, India. Invited to be on the international forum as participating curator.
•2015 S.T. Lee Annual Lecture on Asian Art and Archaeology, the University of Sydney, Australia. Keynote speaker.
•2015 Asian Art Research in Australia and New Zealand: Past, Present,
Future. A Symposium presented by the Power Institute and Department of Art History, The University of Sydney. Invited as respondent, and chaired one panel.
•2014 Of Mind and Measure: Heaven, Hell and Hologram. Lecture at the ArtScience Museum symposium ‘Visualizing the Universe’, Singapore.
•2012 Art & Ideas: series of five public lectures, Art Appreciation Lecture
Series, Singapore Art Museum.
•2010 Connect, Continue, Create: The 3rd International Deleuze Studies Conference, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Title of presented paper: Between Spider & Fly, Prehension & Becoming
•2008 Knowledge and Inquiry Symposium. The Teacher’s Network Auditorium: Ministry of Education, Singapore. Invited by MOE to speak at the symposium. Title of presentation: Turning the Curious Corners of Thought: Ways of Knowing in the Arts.
•2006 Performance Studies International (PSi#12): Queen Mary, University of London, U.K. Chaired the panel ‘Panic Buttons: Performance, Crisis, Rights’.
•2004 Performance Studies International (PSi#10): Singapore.
2002~2004: on the organizing committee for PSi Conference in Singapore.
Includes organization of a pre-conference Performance Research Workshop in May 2003 in Penang, Malaysia. Convened one panel and moderated another.
Teaching & Supervisory Record
• 2025 National Institute of Education International, Singapore.
Consultant/Adjunct Lecturer for the module Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Reflection, for Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education (PGDHE).
• 2025 University of the Arts, Singapore/LASALLE College of the Arts
Part-time lecturer for the module Histories of Exhibitions and Curating, part of the BA (Hons) programme: Art Histories and Curatorial Practices: Asia and the World.
• 2019~2023 Republic Polytechnic, School of Technology for the Arts, Singapore.
Senior Lecturer (Jun 2020 ~ 3 Nov 2023) | Associate Lecturer (Jun 2019 – Jun 2020).
• 2016~2020 Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, School of Art & Design, Singapore.
Adjunct Lecturer. Appointed supervisor for BA (Hons) Fine Arts students’ studio (contemporary art) practice. Degree was awarded by the University of Loughborough, U.K. From 2018, degree awarded by the University of Central Lancashire, U.K.
• 2009~2013 National Institute of Education, Visual & Performing Arts, NTU, Singapore. Assistant Professor.
• 2008~2009 Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Fine Art, Singapore
Senior Lecturer & Course Leader. Degrees awarded by the University of Huddersfield, U.K.
• 2005~2007 University of Sussex, School of Humanities, Department of English, U.K. Associate Tutor.
• 1999~2003 LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts, School of Fine Art, Singapore.
Lecturer.
• 1996-1998 University of Western Sydney, Australia. Invited to teach part-time for four semesters.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS & BOARD MEMBERSHIP
• Uniform November, Consultancy: Place & Peace-building, owned by specialist Frazer Macdonald Hay, Scotland, U.K. Editorial Board, Member. 2017 ~ present.
• Curriculum Development Advisory Committee, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore. Chair. 2016 ~ 2018.
• Distinguished Alumni Medal 2014, conferred by Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, for contribution to excellence in art and the development of the arts in Singapore. Sep 2014.
• International Association of Art Critics (AICA), Singapore Section. Founding and Board Member of the AICA Singapore Section.2006 ~ 2021.
• The Substation, Board of Directors, Board Member. Jun 2012 ~ Oct 2018.
• National Arts Council, Visual Arts Advisory Panel, Singapore. Panel Member. 2007 ~ 2016.
• Public Art Trust, Advisory & Commissioning Panel, National Arts Council. Panel Member. 2014 ~ 2016.
• 2015 Venice Biennale Commissioning Panel, National Arts Council. Panel Member. 2013 ~ 2015.
• Singapore Biennale 2013 Advisory Committee, Committee Member. Jun 2012 ~ Jul 2013.
• Singapore Art Museum, Advisory Board, Board Member. Aug 2011~ Jul 2013.
• Singapore Art Museum, Acquisitions Committee, Committee Member. Jan 2010 ~ Jul 2013.