The National Gallery Singapore (NGS) has revealed that chief curator Patrick Flores and assistant chief executive Chris Lee will leave the institution in December, according to a report by The Straits Times. Their exits coincide with a broader leadership shuffle at NGS: Chng Hak-Peng will join NGS as chief executive officer on January 1, 2027, taking over from Eugene Tan, who has helmed NGS since 2013. 

Patrick Flores is an art historian, curator, writer, and the director of the Philippine Contemporary Art Network. He has worked at NGS since 2022, becoming its chief curator in 2024. During his four-year tenure, he oversaw various shows, including “City of Others: Asian Artists in Paris, 1920s–1940s” (2025) and “Passion is Volcanic: Desire in Southeast Asian Art” (2026), the museum’s first adults-only exhibition, which explored queer histories and eroticism in Southeast Asian art. Flores’s departure, influenced by a decision to return to the Philippines, comes amid the ongoing renovation of NGS’s Southeast Asian Gallery, which is scheduled for completion in November 2027.

Chris Lee has been with NGS for a decade, first serving as the institution’s chief marketing officer from 2016 to 2021 before becoming assistant chief executive for museum experience and operations. On December 16, he will assume his new role as chief executive officer of both Medan Pasar Realty and Muara Arts in Kuala Lumpur. The latter, a nonprofit gallery dedicated to Southeast Asian art, is slated to open on November 1 with an inaugural group exhibition titled “A–Z of Southeast Asian Art: A Critical Dictionary.”

Speaking with The Straits Times, Chng said that “interim leadership arrangements were in place and that the gallery’s programs, partnerships, and services would continue as planned.” He added that NGS will review “future appointments that would best support the museum in the long term.” 

Yixuan Zhang is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.