Thanks to the hard work put in by the small but tenacious team, the Singapore Art Book Fair has become an eagerly anticipated highlight in the annual calendar for design lovers.

Now in its eighth edition, the fully independent affair will be staged at the new Singapore Art Museum (SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark) for the first time and it will be largest edition to date, featuring over 90 local and international exhibitors who will be showcasing a wide selection of artist’s books, monographs, contemporary art editions, zines and other printed ephemera.

Things to look out for this year include A Different Reading – a brand new initiative by the platform TheBookShow that brings together nine young creatives under the mentorship of acclaimed designer Hanson Ho and artist Ang Song Nian. The initiative aims to advocate the book form as an art in and of itself, and five artist-designer pairs are brought together to explore a plethora of themes and subject matters through this medium.

There will also be a series of book launches, discussions and artist talks held in the Engine Room of SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark (registration required – more details here), with the adjacent event Singapore Art Book Library taking place concurrently at the independent art space Starch at Tagore Lane.

April 29 to May 1, noon to 8pm, at Singapore Art Museum at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 39 Keppel Road

Music organiser 24Owls continues its streak of interesting shows, all held at Pasir Panjang Power Station. The latest is Northern Lights – an experimental half-day live event meant to evoke a winter road trip. It’s quite the experimental line-up featuring musicians, composers and visual artists from various genres – from classic to electronic – in a collaborative effort to put their own spin on the winter season.

The line-up includes ambient composer Mervin Wong (pictured above at the launch of his Akasha EP launch at the same venue last month), DJs KoFlow + David Loke, classical music quartet Bards of Neverland, electronic producer Intriguant and more.

Get your tickets here.

May 1, 6pm t0 11pm, at Pasir Panjang Power Station A, 27 Pasir Panjang Rd

Offtrack is fast becoming our go-to hang-out joint with its deft blend of good tunes, great design and comfort food – and now, they’re putting on their first exhibition.

Aptly titled Approachable, the exhibition is jointly organised with independent art consultancy Mama Magnet and it features the prints of Indonesian art collective Krack! Studio. There will also be a specially curated cocktail to be run alongside the usual menu throughout the exhibition’s duration.

Krack! Studio are beloved for its humorous, self-aware works that poke fun at socio-political happenings in Indonesia, and the show is themed on everyday encounters, with sequential silkscreen prints narrating comically flexible solutions.

The artworks are self-aware manuals for navigating life, and feature the universal language of memes and logic. The month-long transformation of the space is a nod to connecting across cultures and breathing life into social spaces using art.

To launch the exhibition, Offtrack will be holding a listening party this Saturday helmed by DJ and producer Nick Bong aka Bongomann, co-founder of local music label Ice Cream Sundays. Get your tickets to the listening party here.

The launch party takes place April 30, 4pm to 5:30pm, while the exhibition runs till May 28, both at Offtrack, 34 Canal Rd