The Museum of East Asian Art (MEAA) presents Reimaginings, a new exhibition by sculptural artist Hannah Lim, running from February 2026 to September 2026. Developed in collaboration with MEAA, Reimaginings marks Lim’s first solo museum show.

In 2025, artist Hannah Lim was invited to visit the MEAA to create work in direct response to its collection. The resulting exhibition features a mix of new and existing artwork displayed alongside objects from the Museum’s collection, co-curated and reimagined by Lim.

The act of reimagining sits at the heart of Lim’s creative practice. Shaped by her upbringing in London and her mixed Singaporean and British heritage, her work explores the relationships between different cultures, and the ways these have historically been expressed through art, design, architecture and furniture. These interests are reflected in the design traditions that inform her practice, most notably chinoiserie.

A key influence on Lim’s work, chinoiserie is a decorative style that was popular during the eighteenth century, in which Chinese motifs were appropriated and adapted for a European market. In her work, Lim seeks to reimagine this tradition by drawing on the ‘over the top’ aesthetic of chinoiserie in a more conscientious way, while acknowledging its colonial origins.

The exhibition will also present a selection of Lim’s snuff bottles, a recurring form in her practice. Larger than their eighteenth century counterparts, her ‘bottles’ are inspired by folklore and mythology and often take on anthropomorphic forms, with animal-like limbs. Like traditional snuff bottles they are designed to be personal, tactile objects, with Lim’s versions having a personal playful quality with hidden pendants hanging inside their lids.

These sculptural works are shown alongside objects from the Museum’s collection, co-curated by Lim. As Lim explains:

The exhibition has been an exciting opportunity to show my work in a new context. I’ve loved creating series of works directly inspired by the objects I’ve selected to highlight from the Museums collection. It’s been a privilege to handle and examine many of these chosen objects up close and this has encouraged me to explore new processes and research whilst making the pieces for the show. My practice has always taken influence from the stories and histories of objects found in museums, most notably Snuff Bottles, so it’s been a particularly exciting opportunity to study and respond to MEAA’s snuff bottle collection.