S.E.A. Focus 2026: The Humane Agency

In a world shaped by shifting borders, changing climates, and diaspora, how do we choose to respond? S.E.A. Focus returns for its eighth edition under the curatorial theme, The Humane Agency.

Curated by John Z.W. Tung, with artistic consultation by Emi Eu, Executive Director of STPI, the presentation highlights the quiet yet urgent force of artists who choose compassion over detachment. Instead of framing people as mere symbols of crisis, the works foreground human connection—as a site of relation, care and resilience.

Spanning a variety of formats, scale and media, galleries and artists from across Southeast Asia and beyond reflect on three pressing global currents: the persistence of conflict and our longing for peace, the intensifying ecological crisis, and the movement of communities across and beyond nation-states. Together, the works slow us down, deepen our capacity to feel and remind us that empathy is not optional—it is a method, an urgency and first step toward imagining a more connected, less estranged future.

Commissioned by the National Arts Council (NAC), S.E.A. Focus 2026 will be organised by and held at ART SG 2026 for the first time at the iconic Marina Bay Sands. Audiences are invited to experience how artists today act not just as observers of the world, but as active participants in shaping it.

More information on S.E.A. Focus can be found at https://seafocus.sg/.