ArtScience Museum
The museum shop features pop-up retail spaces for current exhibitions, like the Collider Exhibition and the Prudential Eye Awards 2016. Besides usual souvenirs like key rings and T-shirts, there are limited edition collectibles, quirky stationery and coffee table books of the current exhibitions.
Buy: Star Wars fans, grab the Metal Earth Star Wars series ($39), which is a DIY metal model kit. And if you’d like to add to your arty-farty coffee book collection, look out for a series of photo books ($80) featuring regional artsits from this year’s Prudential Eye Awards.
National Gallery & Co.
National Gallery Singapore
No hot new arts destination in town is complete without a sleek retail and F&B concept and we wouldn’t expect anything less from National Gallery & Co. A collaboration between lifestyle honcho Unlisted Collection, design agency Foreign Policy Design Group and beauty retailer Luxasia, it stocks stuff you don’t really need but absolutely must have. Throw in a cafe and bar specializing in Southeast Asian fare by chef Sufian Zain of Restaurant Ember, and it’s possibly a place you’d never want to have to leave.
Buy: If you love a good illustration, you might be tempted to grab a fun umbrella with cheery portraits of famous artists like Andy Warhol and Frida Kahlo ($29.90). Or, if you’re someone who hoards stationery, there are notebooks with flashy graphic covers ($14.90).
National Museum of Singapore
More kitchsy stationery and souvenirs with a local spin can be found at this quiet, ground-level corner of the National Museum of Singapore. While there are some items we think toe the fine line between witty and tacky (like exxy “Nose Job’ erasers by Jackson Tan and Tanny Wong), we spotted a couple of knick-knacks that make great last-minute office party gifts.
Buy: Our picks include the Kancheong Spider watch ($36), keyrings featuring local food like nasi lemak ($28) and the Singapore Tabao lunchboxes (from $5-9).
Objectifs
Objectifs
Burgeoning film and photography enthusiasts might want to make this non-profit visual arts center their new go-to. Besides offering part-time courses in photography and film making and hosting talks, film screening and exhibitions, the gallery’s shop stocks a neat variety of local and regional underground and cult films (no, you can’t get them on Netflix) and prints by emerging and established artists like Bryan van der Beek, Ernest Goh and Phillip Aldrup.
Buy: Check out their quirky coffee table books, such as photo language title “Singaporelang—What the Singlish” by Zinkie Aw ($60), which has 40 photographs and a dictionary of colloquialisms translated into Singapore’s four main languages.
Supermama
Singapore Art Museum
Now housing store and artist residency studio Supermama, the SAM’s gift shop became a lot more exciting in the last few years. Still going strong on their philosophy of championing good design, it’s a place for collectors of knick-knacks featuring a strong and uniquely Singaporean slant. Skipping the cheesy “Singapore is a Fine City” T-shirts, the shop stocks fun and nolstagic souvenirs.
Buy: Get the miniature Kopitiam chair ($10), the coffee bag mug ($20) and chic porcelain table ware with graphics inspired by ‘icons’ like HDB blocks and the Vanda Miss Joaquim orchid (from $36).
The Little Drom Store
SOTA, School of the Arts
Formerly located at a tucked away corner in Ann Siang Hill, The Little Drom Store is both a gift shop, workshop and exhibition space for local artists and aspiring artisans. Almost everything here is absolutely Singaporean, including their collaborations with designers and artists and if you’re heading down for the first time, the store is known for their popular old school mosaic playground series of pins.
Buy: Right now, limited edition highlights range from mash-ups with Polkaros ($24), which features a too-cute take on local desserts like ice kachang and burbur cha cha and a cat character series by Audrey Jeanne ($29).
