As a curator and administrator, Eugene Tan has been pivotal in shaping Singapore’s art scene for more than a decade. The museum director of the National Gallery Singapore since 2013 and the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) since 2019 has spearheaded a period of improvement and growth at both.

As part of his work with the National Gallery he curated major exhibitions on modernism and minimalism, including. Reframing Modernism: Painting from Southeast Asia, Europe and Beyond and Minimalism: Space.Light.Object, and also spearheaded successful projects with museums including Centre Pompidou, Tate Britain and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. Under his directorship, SAM launched its residencies programme, providing a platform for artistic experimentation, and also opened an outpost at Tanjong Pagar Distripark as part of its efforts to diffuse art at various spaces in the city.

In previous roles, Tan oversaw the development of visual arts hub Gillman Barracks, and curated exhibitions including the Singapore Biennale and the Singapore Pavilion at the 2005 Venice Biennale, as well as thematic shows such as Coffee, Cigarettes and Pad Thai: Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia (2008), Always Here but Not Always Present: Art in a Senseless World (2008), The Burden of Representation: Abstraction in Asia Today (2010) and Of Human Scale and Beyond: Experience and Transcendence (2012). He is on the board of CiMAM and Mori Art Museum’s International Advisory Committee.