New leadership

NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA) announces a change in leadership effective July 1, 2024, when the Centre’s Founding Director, curator and educator Prof Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore) stepped down after more than 10 years at its helm. Bauer will continue pursuing her large-scale Ministry of Education’s research projects as Principal Investigator of Climate Crisis and Cultural Loss and as Senior Principal Investigator for the Climate Transformation Programme headed by Lead PI, Professor Benjamin P. Horton, Director of the Earth Observatory Singapore at NTU. Bauer will also continue teaching in the MA Museum Studies and Curatorial Practices at NTU’s School of Art, Design, and Media (ADM).

Founded with a threefold mandate: exhibitions, residencies, and academic research, the Centre welcomes its new Director, the curator, author, and educator Dr Karin G. Oen (United States/Singapore), continuing its transdisciplinary approach to artistic research, knowledge production and redefining the Centre’s continued role within the University. Oen, brings with her years of experience as curator in the United States at Peabody Essex Museum, Crow Museum of Asian Art, and Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.  Previously NTU CCA’s Deputy Director, Curatorial Programmes (2019-2021), she is currently Senior Lecturer and Head of Department, Art History, at NTU’s School of Humanities (SOH), and will retain these affiliations while overseeing NTU CCA.

Oen received her PhD in History, Theory, and Criticism of Art and Architecture (2006-2012) supervised by art historian Prof Caroline A. Jones (United States) at MIT. Since 2019 Oen and Bauer have collaborated on NTU CCA exhibitions and programmes, co-authored and co-edited publications and taught together at NTU ADM. “I am honoured to return to CCA to continue the work of this important and unique research Centre,” says Oen. “In addition to contributing to research, programming, and publications that are visible to art worlds in the region and around the world, the Centre holds a special place in the complex ecosystem of NTU, a leading technological university. I look forward to working with artists, curators, educators, and students to explore new topics connected to the Centre’s established areas of inquiry including Spaces of the Curatorial, Curating the City, and Climates. Habitats. Environments. In 2024 and 2025, I hope to renew the Centre’s commitments to fostering critical thinking and writing; innovative exhibition-making; local, regional, and international coalition-building through the arts; and digging deeper into the connections between art and technology through diverse lenses including the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering. I look forward to increase collaboration with NTU’s other institutions, harnessing their abundant resources for artistic engagement, including for our residence programme."

Bauer states “It’s been a great honour to serve as the CCA’s founding director, witnessing the Centre becoming an integral part of Singapore’s art ecosystem with its strong focus on artistic research, and capacity building in the field of curating. To serve as a host for so many artists, curators but also being a training ground for Singapore’s next generation of cultural practitioners has been a rewarding task. I could not imagine a better successor than Dr Karin Oen, who is bringing both intimate knowledge and fresh perspectives of CCA to the table. I am certain with Karin as director, CCA will continue its thought-provoking role. I am immensely grateful to the core founding and funding bodies, EDB, NTU, and NAC, to our international advisors and all the contributors and staff, who worked with CCA over the past decade making the Centre a recognised entity in the field of Contemporary Art in Singapore and a highly regarded partner for the SEA region.”

Since its establishment in 2013, CCA has shaped itself as a hub for curatorial experimentation and artistic research with a strong focus on climate change. Its various programmes were guided and unified by the overarching research clusters of PLACE.LABOUR.CAPITAL. and CLIMATES. HABITATS. ENVIRONMENTS. Under this unique institutional framework, CCA has presented over 50 acclaimed exhibitions and research presentations.

Since 2014, the Centre’s nurtured more than 210 Artists-, Curators-, and Researchers-in-Residence, among them 60 Singaporean artists and counting. Many of the projects developed by the artists during their residencies went on to be presented at international exhibitions, biennials, and festivals. The Centre was joined by 56 Young Professional Trainees, contributing to capacity building in the arts sector. CCA has released 17 publications, including Tomás Sarceno’s award-winning Arachnid Orchestra. Jam Sessions. and most recently, with National Gallery Singapore, co-published The Modern in Southeast Asian Art: A Reader (2023), edited by eminent art historians T.K. Sabapathy (Singapore) and Patrick D. Flores (Philippines/Singapore).