Home With The Chowdhurys

When you’re passionate about art, your collection can stretch from street art to famous pieces, and even artworks done by your own family members. We take a look at the Chowdhurys’ impressive home gallery.

- Kel Flanders

A Family Home

“Suburban living in urban Singapore” – that’s how Americans Asif and Sharmeen Chowdhury describe their home in Kranji. The large threestorey house is at the end of a quiet familyfocused cul-de-sac, complete with children playing soccer and dogs being walked. There’s a minimalist exterior to the home, but thanks to the preview photos I’ve seen, I expect it to reveal itself like a geode, with a spectacular and colourful collection of art and artefacts inside. I’m not disappointed.

The couple open the door and warmly welcome me into a mesmerising space. There are paintings, drawings and beautiful lamps everywhere. My gaze eventually falls, and remains, on a huge black-and-white drawing of two elephants, hung next to the staircase.

We sit down and I ask how their impressive collection started. “We’ve always been interested in supporting local artists,” Asif starts to explain. “We used to do it in the US. After coming to Singapore, we started collecting pieces from artists in the region as we travelled around.”