Art and architecture at the National Gallery

One of the first things we did as a family after Lesley-Anne's 'A' levels was visit the newly opened National Gallery.

Andre thought this was National Geographic-familiar, lol.

The National Gallery houses the Southeast Asian modern art collection but a big part of its appeal to us is that is is housed in the former Supreme Court and City Hall. The architecture of these historic buildings is absolutely gorgeous.

Walkway linking Supreme Court and City Hall

City Hall Chamber

Holding cell for those awaiting trial

Chief Justice's chambers

Rotunda Gallery

There's also a roof garden gallery where you can have possibly one of the best views of Singapore's skyline.

Panoramic shot taken by Lesley-Anne

Oh yes, the art, haha!

One of the earliest uses of batik technique in modern art

LOL

This piece caused a minor schism in the OCD segment of our brains.

There were some pretty interesting art installations too.

There was a guard in front of this one. Every time a young child ran into the room, I had a nervous twitch.

If I'm being perfectly honest, I enjoyed the architecture of the National Gallery more than the art. That's not to say the collection isn't impressive - it is. Just that a lot of SE Asian art seems to veer towards gory and nightmare-inducing themes, probably due to the tumultuous history of our region. Aesthetic-wise, not my favourite.

However, the gallery is totally worth a visit. To celebrate its opening, admission is free from now till 6 December, but you have to book tickets as entry is limited to a fixed number of visitors per day.

Enroute to our dinner destination, we walked through Fullerton Hotel, which was all decked out in yuletide glitz.

Dinner was at Over Easy at One Fullerton where we had an indulgent meal of mac and cheese, burgers, fried chicken and waffles, milkshake, mohito and a plateful of sliders!