National Gallery Singapore has opened its first R18 exhibition, 'Passion Is Volcanic: Desire In South-east Asian Art', featuring around 60% of works from the national collection, many shown for the first time, alongside regional loans. The show includes a 14th-15th century tantric Buddhist sculpture of kissing buddhas, a pastel painting by pioneering gay Singaporean artist Tan Peng, Liu Kang's 1953 painting 'Scene In Bali', and long-exposure photography by Lavender Chang originally commissioned for a Viagra campaign. Co-curators Adele Tan and Kathleen Ditzig contextualize the exhibition with pre-modern works to demonstrate that artists' interest in the body, desire, and sex is enduring in Asia.
The exhibition matters because it marks a significant institutional step for National Gallery Singapore in addressing themes of sexuality and desire in Southeast Asian art, including LGBTQ+ representation. By featuring Tan Peng's work—the first local artist to come out publicly as gay in 1993—and interrogating the male gaze in canonical Nanyang artists like Liu Kang, the show challenges historical taboos and expands the discourse around art, identity, and censorship in the region. It also highlights the importance of preserving and exhibiting previously unseen works from the national collection.