Culture Square: Affordable art in Duxton Hill

As a general rule of thumb, you can tell what stage of their life a person is at by looking at the artwork on their walls. Teenagers and students will have posters, graduating in one’s early twenties to framing those posters (oh, the sophistication!) and then slowly continuing on to prints and maybe even thinking about buying some original artworks by the time you hit your mama years. It can be rather tricky though to know what to buy (especially if your budget doesn’t extend to strolling into art galleries and flashing the cash), and with the white walls in my apartment glaring down at me, I headed over to recently-opened Culture Square on Duxton Road to take a look…

The idea behind Culture Square might be familiar to those of us who browse sites like 20×200.com. Basically, artworks are priced according to their size rather than according to some perceived (and rather subjective) quality of the piece. It’s a wonderfully democratic system, and refreshing in that it strips away the snobbishness that can be off-putting in the art world. All that remains is that you pick what you like, check the price according to the easy-to-follow pricelist (everything’s under $1,000) on the wall and take your new piece of artwork home with you! You can even choose one of Culture Square’s ready-made frames to make things even more simple.

Toni Chan, the brains behind the business, has put together a diverse selection of artists to feature, with a strong local focus (around half of them are Singaporean). If you’re looking for something for your home with a bit of a South East Asian flavour, we love Debra Raymond’s food-based paintings — perfect for jazzing up a kitchen. We also couldn’t resist snapping up some of US-born Shelby Dillon’s pieces, which feature colourful Singapore shop houses in bright sunlight. And then of course we also fell for local girl Teresa Lim’s embroidered, rather subversive artworks – maybe not quite the thing for your little one’s bedroom, but very covetable for yours!

You might be wondering how Toni chose the various artists to feature? Well, she’s the first to admit she had some expert help with talent-spotting from the savvy profs at LaSalle College of Art, who cherry-picked their most promising students to exhibit. So not only are you supporting young, local artists in their blossoming careers, but you also might get lucky with scoring something that’ll one day be worth millions! With prices starting from $170, it’s a punt we’re more than happy to take!

Culture Square, 72 Duxton Road, Singapore 089531
Tel: (+65) 6222 3283
www.culture-square.com

Opening Hours:
Monday  Closed
Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 8pm; 
Sunday 11am – 5pm