Education
2021 – 2025
PhD, History of Art
Collaborative Doctoral Partnership, Birkbeck (University of London) and The National Gallery, London, U.K
2019 – 2021
MA Situated Practice (Distinction)
Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, London, U.K
2015 – 2019
BA (Hons) Urban Studies (with a minor in Arts and Humanities)
Yale-NUS College, Singapore
Selected Awards, Honours, and Nominations
2025
Gwynne-Vaughan Prize, Birkbeck, University of London, U.K
First Prize Winner, ROSL Photography Award 2025, U.K
Top 10 Winner, LensCulture Critics’ Choice Award
Honorary Mention, Artists on Photography Fellowship, Münchner Stadtmuseum, Germany
Longlist, Aesthetica Art Prize 2025, U.K
2024
Finalist, Kuala Lumpur International Photoawards 2024, Malaysia
Longlist, OD Photo Prize 2024, U.K
Finalist, International Photography Exhibition 166, Royal Photographic Society, U.K
2023
International Placement Scheme Fellowship at Huntington Library, Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), U.K
DECK Associate Creative Programme, Singapore
2021
Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Award, Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), U.K
2019
Yale-NUS Chen Chong Swee Scholarship, Singapore
Tan Ean Kiam Postgraduate Scholarship, Tan Kah Kee Foundation, Singapore
Emerging Young Leader Award, Yale-NUS College, Singapore
Shortlist, 212 Photography Competition, Istanbul
Nominee, World Press Photo 6×6 Global Talent
Finalist, French + Singapore Photographic Arts Awards, Singapore
2018
Finalist, Invisible Photographer Asia Awards (Photobook), Singapore
2015
Global Leaders Scholarship, Yale-NUS College, Singapore
Solo Exhibitions and Commissions
2025
Procession. Possession., Singapore Civic District, commissioned by Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
2024
Eastern Promise, Fabrica Gallery, Brighton, U.K
2019
The Last Gap, University Cultural Centre, commissioned by NUS Centre For the Arts, Singapore
First Storeys, 300 Jalan Bukit Ho Swee, commissioned by The Future of Our Pasts Festival, Singapore
This is Where, bus stop shelters islandwide, commissioned by Singapore Fringe Festival, Singapore
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025
Ecology of Sensitivity: Guangzhou Image Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
ROSL Photography Award, ROSL, London, U.K
International Photography Exhibition 166, Saatchi Gallery, London, U.K
Auckland Festival of Photography, Ellen Melville Centre, Auckland, New Zealand
Dynamic Perspective, Guest Room: Iris Sikking & Fleurie Kloostra, Der Greif, Germany (online)
Magic Hour, Yale-NUS College, Singapore
2024
Photolux Photography Festival, Palazzo Ducale, Lucca, Italy
2021
FIFTEEN, London, U.K (online)
2020
Bloomsbury Festival, London, U.K (online)
Gallery Light Up, commissioned by National Gallery Singapore, Singapore
Our HeARTlands, commissioned by Plural Art Mag, Singapore (online)
Streets of Hope, commissioned by National Arts Council, Singapore
Urban Challenges, B-Part, Berlin, Germany
Undescribed #5, DECK, Singapore
2019
The City We Love, Singapore City Gallery, Singapore
B-Sides, Coda Culture, Singapore
Accretion, Objectifs, Singapore
French + Singapore Photographic Arts Awards, la galerie, Singapore
2018
Addis Foto Fest, Ethiopia
I.D. (The Body’s Still Warm), 42 Cambridge Road, Singapore
Landskrona Foto Festival Window Exhibition, Landskrona, Sweden
Kontenporanea, Carlos Blanco Aguinaga Cultural Center, Irun, Spain
EXP Series, Chan+Hori Contemporary, Singapore
The Body: International Exhibition and Documentary, CICA Museum, South Korea
2015
Unseen/Unknown, DECK, Singapore
Programmes and Exhibitions Curation
2024
Archival Allergies: Personal Remedies for the Colonial Archive, Singapore International Photography Festival, Singapore
Featuring Abednego Trianto, Nurul Huda Rashid, Nydia A. Swaby, Sajan Mani, Stephanie Syjuco.
Archive of One’s Own, DECK, Singapore (Online)
Featuring Abednego Trianto, Freya Schwachenwald, Nurul Huda Rashid, Nydia A. Swaby, Rio Creech-Nowagiel, Sajan Mani, Sim Chi Yin, Stephanie Syjuco.
Selected External Artistic Contributions
2021
RELAY, by Fiction Feeling Frame (Royal College of Art), performer (performance-conversation), Venice Architecture Biennale, Teatro Piccolo Arsenale, Venice, Italy + Online
2018
Dance Drawings (for Jock), by Emily Coates, performer (dance-movement), Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, U.S.A
Authored Texts and Publications
Cham, Sean. “Inheriting Empire, Wealth, and Art: The Baring Family and London’s National Gallery in the Nineteenth Century.” Cultural and Social History, November 2024, 1–26. doi:10.1080/14780038.2024.2426251.
Cham, Sean. “Legacies of British Slavery in London’s National Gallery,” Traces, University College London, Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery (London, 2023).
Cham, Sean. Yesteryears. Singapore: Math Paper Press, 2017.
Conferences, Workshops and Talks
‘Performing Masculinities in the Colonial Archive’. Paper presented at Encounters: Art, Power and Archives Symposium. Autograph Gallery, London. 18 March 2025.
‘英国帝国的批判史’. Invited speaker at 从“汉砖”到“苦力档案”：“百科全书式”博物馆的殖民遗产与解殖实践. Decolonial Being Network, Goethe-Institut China. Online. 15 March 2025.
‘Performing Histories’. Artist talk. Fabrica Gallery, Brighton. 6 February 2025.
‘Parallel Lives: Between Art and Empire’. Guest lecture. Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London. 12 December 2024.
‘Parallel Lives in the Foundational Years of London’s National Gallery, 1824-1874’. Sharing with Sotheby’s Institute of Art. National Gallery, London. 17 November 2023.
‘Inheriting Empire and Wealth: Baring Brothers and the Baring family in the nineteenth century’. Paper presented at Slavery and the City Conference (invited speaker). Lloyd’s of London, London. 13 November 2023.
‘Juno, Mary Katz, and the many unnamed: Embedding narratives of enslaved individuals in the history of London’s National Gallery (and other British art galleries)’. Paper presented at Slavery, Institutions, and Empire: Moving Beyond Microhistory Conference. University of Oxford. 7 September 2023.
‘Juno, Mary Katz, and the many unnamed: Embedding narratives of colonised individuals in the history of art collections’. Invited speaker at Victoria and Albert Museum Provenance Research Seminar. V&A Museum, London. 18 July 2023.
‘Decolonising the Art Gallery?: Legacies of the British Empire in London’s National Gallery’. Invited speaker at How We Gather. National Gallery Singapore, Singapore. 13 July 2023.
‘Collecting and Displaying Empire: Burton’s Rehang in London’s National Gallery, 1876’. Paper presented at Encounter, Race, and Representation: Painting Empire in the ‘Long’ Nineteenth Century Workshop. Society for Global Nineteenth-Century Studies, Singapore. 20 June 2023.
‘Inheriting Empire: Inter-generational and Inter-imperial wealth and collecting of the Baring family’. Paper presented at Society for Global Nineteenth-Century Studies World Congress. Society for Global Nineteenth-Century Studies, Singapore. 20 June 2023.
‘Quantifying Empire: The National Gallery’s Foundational Figures and the British East and West Indies, 1824-1874’. Paper presented at History Lab Seminar Series. The Institute of Historical Research, online. 18 May 2023.
‘Collecting Empire: Scenes and Objects of Empire in and outside of the National Gallery’. Paper presented at Sources and Approaches in Museum History. Museums and Galleries History Group, London. 19 January 2023.
‘Networks of Empire, Family, and Art in London’s National Gallery, 1824-1874’. Sharing with National Gallery’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Employee Network. National Gallery, London. 8 November 2022.
‘Networks of Empire, Family, and Art in London’s National Gallery, 1824-1874’. Sharing with Sotheby’s Institute of Art. National Gallery, London. 28 October 2022.
‘Addressing the Ghosts in the Gallery’. Paper presented at The Ways of Archiving: Practices, Conditions and Discourses around the Study of Arts and Culture International Workshop. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. 12 September 2022.
‘Addressing the Ghosts in the Gallery’. Paper presented at Recovering Pasts, Producing Futures Conference. Birkbeck, University of London. 22 June 2022.
‘National Gallery and the Colonial Past’. Paper presented at Institutions and the Colonial Past Workshop. King’s College London. 20 May 2022.
‘Association for Art History Curatorial Committee Discuss the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships Scheme’. Panelist at Association for Art History’s 48th Annual Conference. London. Online. 7 April 2022.
‘Tiger of Malaya & The Last Gap: Historical Narratives & Contested Memories’. Invited speaker at Artist-Intellectual Dialogue Series. National University of Singapore. Online. 6 May 2021.
Interviews, Press, and Reviews
2025
“Eastern Promise.” European Photography Magazine, no. 117/118, vol. 46, 15 September 2025.
“‘A tour de force!’: LensCulture Critics’ Choice awards – in pictures.” The Guardian, 13 August 2025.
2023
Oon, Amanda. “Heritage, history and AI: A conversation about forgotten pasts and imagined futures with multi-disciplinary artist Sean Cham.” Plural Art Mag, 17 October 2023.
2021
Lua, Nicholas. “Opening the Bicentennial: Historical Plurality in Sean Cham’s Art.” In Raffles Renounced: Towards a Merdeka History, edited by Alfian Sa’at, Sai Siew-Min and Faris Joraimi. Singapore: Ethos Books, 2021.
Rendell, Jane, ed. “Washing White (2021).” Critical Spatial Practice, 21 September 2021.
2020
“In Our Time.” Channel News Asia, 1 January 2020.
2019
“An Interview With Sean Cham, Creator of This Is Where.” Bakchormeeboy, 3 January 2019.
“Behind & Beyond Yesteryears: An Interview with Sean Cham.” BooksActually, 10 January 2019.
“Sean Cham talks to Jo Tomalin about This is Where.” FringeReview, January 2019.
Chandradas, Usha. “They Work Hard for the Money.” Plural Art Mag, 24 January 2019.
“Preview: First Storeys by Sean Cham.” Bakchormeeboy, 12 February 2019.
Wong, Kayla. “Here are the stories from S’pore’s past that few knew about.” Mothership, 13 February 2019.
Keng, Yang Shuen. “New Festival Wants To Tackle The Forgotten Narratives Of Singapore.” Female, 15 February 2019.
“Young artists reimagine Singapore history.” NUS News, 20 February 2019.
“On the Scene with Eugene – Sean Cham – First Storeys.” 938NOW, 22 February 2019.
Ho, Olivia. “Arts Picks.” The Straits Times, 1 March 2019.
Teo, Xiao Ting. “First Storeys by Sean Cham.” Centre 42, 3 March 2019.
“Review: First Storeys by Sean Cham.” Bakchormeeboy, 5 March 2019.
Nair, Marc. “Leaving the Kampung: A Review of First Storeys.” Mackerel, 17 March 2019.
2018
“The City Ramble.” Shophouse & Co, Mar 2018.
Atienza, María José. “Más Kontenporanea que nunca.” El Diario Vasco, 11 May 2018.
Atienza, María José. “Kontenporanea lleva el arte a la calle.” El Diario Vasco, 21 May 2018.
“2018 Award Finalist: Yesteryears, by Sean Cham.” Invisible Photographer Asia, 6 Jun 2018.
Nanda, Akshita. “Exploring in-between spaces.” The Straits Times, 18 October 2018.
Martin, Mayo. “Depression and the marginalised are in the spotlight.” CNA Lifestyle, 18 October 2018.
“M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2019: Still Waters.” Bakchormeeboy, 18 October 2018.
2017
Ho, Pamela. “Book a Date with Art.” The A-List, 13 Apr 2017.
Adriaens, Michele. “Yesteryears by Sean Cham.” Culturepush, 26 Apr 2017.
Lim, Hui Min. “本地年轻人通过摄影绘画保留旧建筑.” Channel 8 News and Current Affairs, 6 May 2017.
Ho, Olivia. “Selfies to mark old places.” The Straits Times, 15 May 2017.
Yang, Daryl. “Remembering the yesteryears.” Yale-NUS College, 25 Jul 2017.
2016
“Singapore Dream – A Photography Series.” National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre, 2016.
2015
Toh, Ee Ming. “Longing for a Bygone Era.” Obscured, 3 Mar 2015.
Duggal, Uday. “This guy photographs himself in forgotten places in S’pore.” Mothership, 12 Mar 2015.
Teo, Yi En. “服役青年自编自导自演，拍50个被遗忘的角落.” Lianhe Wanbao, 1 Apr 2015.
Sethi, Mrigga. “Meet the photographer whose mission is to remember Singapore’s forgotten places.” SG, 10 Apr 2015.
Ong, Sara. “Youth Tastemakers: Sean Cham.” SCAPE, 24 Apr 2015.
Neo, Grace. “Three thought-provoking SG50 initiatives.” Youth.sg, 29 Apr 2015.
“Yesteryears.” Milk Oracle, 24 May 2015.
Ho, Pamela. “Good Morning, Yesterday.” The A-List, 12 June 2015.
Tay, Qiao Wei. “A Walk Down Memory Lane: What Will We Get Out Of Nostalgia?” Challenge, 1 Jul 2015.
“Arts and Entertainment.” RE:TV2, 15 Jul 2015.
Tng, Serene. “Who is that guy in white?” Going Places, 6 Aug 2015.
Neo, Hui Yuan and Yip Jie Ying. “Sean’s Stories.” Octant, 20 Oct 2015.
Toh, Ee Ming. “The Big Read: Making Singapore a better place for workers who come from afar.” TODAY, 12 Dec 2015.
Sean Cham 