SINGAPORE – Chief curator of Singapore Art Museum (SAM) Shabbir Hussain Mustafa has been appointed the next artistic director of the Aichi Triennale in 2028.
The Sri Lankan-born Singapore permanent resident will be only the second foreigner to head the Japanese art festival since it started in Aichi prefecture in 2010.
The first foreigner to helm the event was 2025’s Emirati Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, who topped the prestigious art magazine ArtReview’s 2024 power list. Hoor is also the founder of the Sharjah Art Foundation in the United Arab Emirates and was the artistic director of the Biennale of Sydney 2026.
Mustafa, 42, says in a statement: “I am deeply honoured by this appointment. Aichi Triennale has built an important place for contemporary art and for the urgent questions that shape our present.
“I look forward to learning from Aichi and its publics, and to approaching the next edition with attentiveness to the many communities that will gather around it.”
The Aichi Triennale will be Mustafa’s first event of such scale, although he is one of four co-curators of the upcoming Rubaiya Qatar, a new contemporary art quadrennial launching in November. He also has experience curating the Singapore Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2015 and co-curated the Dhaka Art Summit in 2018.
In making the selection, the Aichi Triennale organising committee said it considered Shabbir’s international perspective, extensive global network, and commitment to local and site-specific artmaking that could help convey the special character of Aichi and boost its international reach.
Contemporary art biennales and triennales in Japan generate billion-yen revenues in tourism while rejuvenating both urban and rural communities. The 2025 edition attracted 524,069 visitors over an 80-day exhibition period.
The prefecture’s cultural affairs department estimates that the event generates about 10 billion yen (S$78 million) for the regional economy.
Mustafa graduated from the National University of Singapore with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in South Asian Studies. He has curated at the National University of Singapore Museum (2007 to 2013), the National Gallery Singapore (2013 to 2023), Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (2023 to 2025) and now SAM.
In 2023, he headed the blockbuster NGS cross-continental show, Tropical: Stories From Southeast Asia And Latin America, which was the first large-scale effort in the world to put seminal works from the two diverse regions in dialogue.
He was nominated for the Aichi role by chief executive officer and director of National Gallery Singapore and Singapore Art Museum Eugene Tan. The final decision was taken by the organising committee comprising directors of Japanese art museums and university professors, headed by chairperson Obayashi Takeo.
SAM said that Mustafa will undertake his new appointment alongside his ongoing responsibilities as the museum’s chief curator and will continue to be based in Singapore.
Mustafa is the latest in a string of Singapore curators who have found success on international platforms, including artist Ho Tzu Nyen, who is the artistic director of the renowned Gwangju Biennale in South Korea, held from September to November.