Chen Raychan Art Gallery

Chen Raychan Art Gallery

The Chen Raychan Art Gallery is located at 31 Lorong Lew Lian in Singapore. Established in 1993, it covers an area of 300 square meters and was founded by Chen Dianqi. It is Singapore’s first private museum and one of the few art galleries in the world dedicated to a living artist. The gallery houses a large collection of works by Chen Raychan.

Chen Raychan is one of Singapore’s most important artists. In the global artistic landscape of today, he stands out with his unique and outstanding achievements across a wide range of fields, including fiction, essays, poetry, drama, criticism, oil painting, ink painting, gouache, printmaking, sculpture, paper carving, seal carving, calligraphy, Buddhism, philosophy, aesthetics, and religious studies. The gallery’s ceiling is left open to expose the natural structure of the wooden beams, while 32 representative clay chess pieces crafted by Chen Raychan—symbolizing the five senses and the mind—are placed on the concrete crossbeams, forming a chessboard. The floor of the gallery features a short essay titled "Mind Chess," handwritten by the artist himself in the cement. This essay describes the very chessboard above.

The highlights of the gallery include over 40 paintings by the artist, created from the 1960s to the early 1990s, encompassing oil paintings, gouache, calligraphy, ink wash, and prints. In addition to visual artworks, the gallery also features thoughtfully displayed publications by Chen Raychan, as well as literary materials, manuscripts, sketches, personal seals, and bookplates.

Tan Swie Hian Museum

Must-visit reason: Singapore’s most renowned art gallery