Date: 6 Jan - 23 Mar 2026
Time: 5am - 12mn
Venue: People’s Gallery exhibition spaces at located near the Visitor Services Counters at Botany Centre, Nassim Gate, Tyersall Gate, and Gallop Gate and Bukit Timah Gate (MRT Station Exit A)

About the exhibition
This exhibition is an exploration of the Japanese principle of wabi-sabi, the art of finding beauty within what is imperfect, impermanent and incomplete, through detailed and close-up shots of nature, as found in the Singapore Botanic Gardens. It is an exploration of ‘perfection within imperfection’, where flaws become a quiet celebration of authenticity and the passage of time. In nature, the rhythms of change and the inevitability of impermanence reveal themselves, reminding the viewers that beauty lives not in permanence, but in transformation. 

All photographs showcased in this exhibition have been captured at the Singapore Botanic Gardens between 2019 and 2025, over multiple visits and re-visits by the artist.

Basak Yuksel Balakrishnan is an architect, interior designer, educator, and artist with experience in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Singapore. She holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Middle East Technical University and a master’s in interior design from Pratt Institute, and currently teaches at Raffles Design Institute in Singapore.

A central part of her artistic practice focuses on close-up nature photography, capturing overlooked textures and fleeting transitions. Inspired by wabi-sabi, she explores impermanence, quiet change, and the beauty found in natural imperfections.

Her work has been recognized internationally, including awards from Open House New York, the Prix de la Photographie Paris (PX3), and a feature by MoMA Photo Club. Basak has participated in group exhibitions in New York and Abu Dhabi. This is her first solo exhibition in Singapore.