Culture

Sakura season
When: Predicted late March into April
Where: Across Japan
From Fukuoka to Hokkaido, it’s sakura season again in Japan. The cherry blossom bloomed early this year, and is currently permeating parks with the fresh smell of spring flowers and blanketing the ground with blush-coloured petals. Don’t miss the chance to witness Japan’s biggest natural event of the year and indulge in hanami, the art of flower viewing, at least once in your life.

Sunday tea ceremonies
When: 1 April 2018, and the first Sunday of every month until October 2018
Where: Ng Teng Fong Roof Garden, National Gallery Singapore
Leap into April with curiosity and find inspiration in Untitled 2018 (The Infinite Dimensions of Smallness), a bamboo maze installation by critically acclaimed artist Rirkrit Tiravanija. Puzzle your way through the maze and you’ll be rewarded by discovering a tea house, where tea ceremonies are held on the first Sunday afternoon of every month.

Wu Guanzhong: A Walk through Nature
When: Until 22 April 2018
Where: Wu Guanzhong Gallery, National Gallery Singapore
This exhibition of works by the late Chinese artist Wu Guanzhong explores visions of his homeland, from the 1960s through to the 2000s, taking the viewer on a captivating journey through changing China. The 16 rotating works were donated by Guanzhong and his family, and represent the largest public holding of the great artist’s work.

Treasures of the Natural World
When: Until 29 April 2018
Where: ArtScience Museum, Singapore
London’s Natural History Museum lent more than 200 of its most significant treasures for this blockbuster exhibition, including specimens that once belonged to Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. With the exhibition now in its final days, don’t miss your chance to marvel at hand-chosen exhibits that range from a 120-million-year-old dinosaur claw, to an African giraffe head, to an Ancient Egyptian mummified cat.

The EY Exhibition: Picasso 1932 – Love, Fame, and Tragedy
When: Until 9 September 2018
Where: Tate Modern, London
1932 was a year of sensuality, entanglement and prolific work for Pablo Picasso, making it an apt focus point for the Tate Modern’s first ever solo exhibition on the artist. More than 100 paintings, sketches and sculptures, along with personal family mementoes, will help build a portrait of the artist during his ‘year of wonders’, when he juggled the complex artistic and personal dynamics of being married with an 11-year-old son while also pursuing a passionate love affair with a woman 28 years his junior.

Masterpieces of French Landscape Paintings
When: 14 April to 8 July 2018
Where: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Japan
While in Japan you must stop by the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum to see this landmark exhibition of 65 paintings loaned from Moscow’s Pushkin Museum, which holds one of the greatest collections of French painting outside France. The exhibition charts the evolution of French landscape painting, region by region, in chronological order from the 17th to the 20th centuries and includes masterpieces such as Monet’s Luncheon on the Grass as well as works by Gauguin, Boucher, Renoir and Cezanne.

HSBC’s Rugby Sevens Series
Where: National Stadium, Singapore
When: 28 and 29 April 2018
Blood, brutality and cauliflower ear: it can only mean the Rugby Sevens Series is back again. If you’re an avid fan of men doing whatever it takes to get that ball across the line, grab tickets while you still can and make sure you’re in Singapore at the end of this month.

This article first appeared as part of a longer feature in the April 2018 issue of UNRESERVED.

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