Samuel Lee

What is your full name?

Samuel Lee.

What is your first name?

Samuel.

Where were you born?

Singapore.

Where do you currently reside and work?

Singapore.

What is your educational background?

I obtained a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Art History from the National University of Singapore, in affiliation with Yale University, and a Master of Arts in Humanities and Art History from the University of Chicago.

What are other details of experiences, work or otherwise, that have led you to your current work?

I joined the museum after some years working across poetry, contemporary art, and heritage conservation. My current role allows me to connect my interest in the histories of design, especially fashion and architecture, with curatorial work and all its productive contingencies.

How would you describe your practice/business?

I am part of a small curatorial team building up the design collection at the National Museum of Singapore. This is a new area of collecting and research that aims to document and represent Singapore's design history, as well as directions and pathways in contemporary design. Much of the work involves historicising and contextualising objects and practices, developing frameworks to think about design in a museum, and articulating the value of design beyond, or in addition to, the transactional and commercial.

What are the highlight projects in your career so far?

A recent highlight was the experience of working with the late Sebastião Salgado, as well as his exhibition curator, scenographer, and wife, Lélia Wanick Salgado. This was for a major project to present one of his final bodies of work, Amazônia, at the museum in 2024.

What are you currently working on?

I am working on a few exhibition projects, one of which is the revamp of the Singapore History Gallery, the museum’s largest permanent gallery. 

While the collections-building process is an ongoing activity, I love the physicality involved in collecting design: the feel and grain of design materials from the historical to the contemporary, noticing the traces of use and wear left behind on objects, and the myriad challenges of collecting, displaying, and talking about design.

Website: samuellee.space