As Singapore celebrates 60 years as a nation-state, Tan obliged with a plethora of shows marking the anniversary across the ‘Visual Arts Cluster’ of which he is CEO – a conglomerate of state institutions that includes National Gallery Singapore (NGS) and Singapore Art Museum (SAM), both of which he also directs – and the STPI Creative Workshop and Gallery. He is an astute operator, balancing the conservatism of the government with the more liberal leanings of the local artworld. NGS made its first major rehang since opening in 2015 (so, another major birthday), and the new exhibition, while patriotically titled Singapore Stories: Pathways and Detours in Art, also found space for Dominique Hui’s 1992 erotically infused largescale mural Statue of Liberty. By increasing NGS’s focus on the art of Southeast Asia, regardless of period, this year including Singapore-born British artist Kim Lim and New Zealand artist Lisa Reihana, Tan has freed up SAM to take a more global position, not least hosting the Singapore Biennale in October this year, titled pure intention, featuring over 80 artists, including Allora & Calzadilla, CAMP and Gala Porras-Kim.