EXHIBITION: 'MENGGODAM'
Venue: Ilham Gallery, Kuala Lumpur
Date: Aug 17 to Nov 2
In Kuala Lumpur, Ilham Gallery’s new exhibition Menggodam – curated by Roopesh Sitharan and Gunalan Nadarajan – explores how nine South-East Asian artists creatively engage with and reimagine technology.
The exhibition, opening this Sunday, will be held in the gallery’s Level 3 space, its more experimental venue.
Menggodam features works by Corinne de San Jose (Philippines), Fendi Mazalan (Malaysia), Giang Nguyen Hoang (Vietnam), Haris Abadi (Malaysia), Hoo Fan Chon (Malaysia), Mira Rizki Kurnia (Indonesia), Tisya Wong (Singapore), Witaya Junma (Thailand), and Yang Jie (Singapore).
Each artist is known for creations across diverse mediums, including film, sound design, video, installation and new media.
In Bahasa Malaysia, menggodam is a rich, multi-layered word that can mean hacking, disruption, misuse, creative remaking, and even piracy. Here, it’s framed as the cultural skill of “reprogramming” to run your own programme - taking what exists and reshaping it for your own ends.
These forms of creative reconfiguring push back against the limits of hardware, systems, and infrastructures – especially those imported from elsewhere. They raise questions about who makes, how things are made, and how value is assigned. Such ingenuity connects to the global histories of open-source, DIY, maker, and hacker cultures.
This Sunday, a curatorial walkthrough will be held at 11.30am, followed by a 2.30pm panel discussion with all participating artists and curators. Admission is free.
More info here.
THEATRE: 'SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME'
Venue: Pentas 2, KLPac
Date: ends Aug 24
Here's one of the buzz events of the theatre scene this month. Presented by The Actors Studio Foundation and The Actors Studio Seni Teater Rakyat as part of KLPac’s 20th anniversary highlight, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me returns for its third staging in Malaysia. Directed by Joe Hasham, the play remains one of his favourites from a career spanning nearly six decades.
This masterpiece by one of Ireland’s most respected playwrights, Frank McGuinness, was performed in the West End and then on Broadway for over a year where it was named Best Foreign Play (New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award).
Lebanon-born Hasham revisits this gripping story which last played in KL in January 2011, reuniting the original cast – Charles Donnelly, Kingsley Judd and Gavin Yap.
Set in a windowless cell in Beirut, it follows an Englishman, an Irishman and an American held hostage, cut off from the world and clinging to hope. Inspired by the 1986 abduction of Irishman Brian Keenan, the play sidesteps politics to focus on humour, fantasy and the resilience of the human spirit.
The show is supported by the Embassy of Ireland in Malaysia and the Australian High Commission.
More info here.
Tali Art Gallery's 'Society, WIP' is a duo exhibition featuring Balinese punk artist Gilang Propagila and KL-based printmaker Sanan Anuar. Photo: The Star/Low Lay Phon
EXHIBITION: 'SOCIETY, WORK-IN-PROGRESS'
Venue: Tali Art Gallery, Petaling Jaya
Date: ends Aug 31
After showcasing Sabahan art collective Pangrok Sulap last month, Tali Art Gallery continues its taste for the unconventional with Society, WIP, a duo exhibition featuring Balinese punk artist, illustrator, and zine-maker Gilang Propagila alongside Kuala Lumpur-based artist and printmaker Sanan Anuar.
Rather than keeping things safely within the “white cube,” Society, WIP opens the gallery up as a place for questions and challenges. Gilang’s raw, DIY energy meets Sanan’s detailed printmaking to explore the many sides of society - its rules and customs, its clashing beliefs, its contradictions, and its quiet moments of beauty.
Here, society is shown not as something fixed, but as a work in progress - messy, complex, and always changing.
Free admission show.
More info here.
Foo May Lyn’s drawings feature in the new exhibition at The Back Room gallery in KL. Photo: The Star/Filepic
EXHIBITION: 'BACK ROOM back room'
Venue: The Back Room, Zhongshan building, KL
Date: ends Aug 31
Where do all the artworks go when a show gets taken down? Do they just disappear into the ether, never again to see the light of day?
The new exhibition Back Room back room (through Aug 31) carries some of the anwers as it presents 25 works by 10 artists - some revisited, others debuting in Malaysia or shown for the first time.
Highlights include new pieces by Hoo Fan Chon from S.E.A. Focus Singapore, a striking gold tableaux by Jerome Kugan, a debut vibration drawing by Dipali Gupta, new and earlier works by Ong Hieng Fuong, Foo May Lyn’s drawings last seen six years ago, and reconfigured pieces by CC Kua, Marcos Kueh, Liew Kwai Fei, and Minstrel Kuik.
Free admission exhibition.
More info here.
Amy Nazira's 'Cerita Rasa II' (oil on biscuit can, 2025). Photo: G13 Gallery
EXHIBITION: 'CELEBRATING DIVERSITY: CONSUMING CULTURE, CONSTRUCTING IDENTITY'
Venue: G13 Gallery, Petaling Jaya
Date: Aug 16-30
Nothing brings Malaysians together quite like food. In the spirit of national pride, this exhibition unites 26 contemporary Malaysian artists across painting, installation, sculpture, and mixed media under the theme of food.
Through both metaphor and medium, the works evoke nostalgic rituals, question inherited ideologies, and celebrate the rich harmony of Malaysia’s multicultural society.
Featured artists include Anisa Abdullah, Amy Nazira, Chong Ai Lei, Fawwaz Sukri, Gan Sze Hooi, Gan Tee Sheng, Haziq Syawal, Ho Mei Kei, Izzuddin Basiron, Wong Ming Hao, Yuki Tham, Amar Shahid, Azizan Paiman, Calvin Chua, Gabriel Cheah, Gan Chin Lee, Sack Tin, Lim Yiji, and Lee Sou Ven.
Rather than simply celebrating Malaysia’s culinary heritage, the exhibition explores themes of nationalism, migration, and identity, inviting audiences to reflect on what it means to “come to the table” in a society shaped by cultural exchange.
The opening reception is this Saturday (Aug 16) at 2pm. The launch will also feature "Naratif Panca-indra" by Azzaha Ibrahim, a 20-minute performance art that blends storytelling, traditional Kelantanese rebab music, gastronomy and sensory interaction. The work invites audiences to journey through the rich yet overlooked heritage of Hulu Kelantan, culminating in the shared tasting of the signature local dish "Singgang Hulu" prepared live before the audience.
More info here.
A view of the 'More Than A Day As A Tiger' exhibition at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia. Photo: The Star/Kamarul Ariffin
EXHIBITION: 'MORE THAN A DAY AS A TIGER'
Venue: Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur
Date: ends Jan 11, 2026
The Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia returns with its biggest exhibition yet, transporting visitors to 18th-century India. It spotlights two influential Mysore rulers - Haider Ali and his son Tipu Sultan - renowned for their fierce resistance against British imperial expansion from 1761 to 1799.
Named after Tipu Sultan’s famous declaration, “It is far better to live like a tiger for a day than to live like a sheep for a hundred years,” the exhibition features prized artefacts from one of India’s most remarkable dynasties.
Visitors will see how Tipu Sultan embraced the tiger motif across weapons, armour, and army uniforms. His legacy of innovation and courage shines through a rare display of superior Mysorean armies and some of the era’s most inventive, finely crafted weaponry.
With detailed craftsmanship and powerful symbolism, the exhibition vividly brings this dramatic chapter of South Asian history to life.
More info here.
Last year’s Poetry Slam winner, Kasthury, returns as the ‘sacrificial poet,’ guiding aspiring competitors. Photo: Jalan Dalam
POETRY: JALAN DALAM’S 'POETRY SLAM SUNDAY'
Venue: Bartolo Lisboa Bakehouse, Central Market, KL
Date: Aug 17
This Sunday, fill your evening with words and rhythm as KL-based performing arts collective Jalan Dalam revives its popular Poetry Slam series.
Now in its second year, the friendly yet fierce competition returns for its fourth volume, promising wit, passion, and lyrical fire.
As before, the slam unfolds in two head-to-head rounds, with poets vying for cash prizes, the title of “Slampion,” and a spot in December’s all-star finale, where six past winners will battle for the ultimate crown.
Opening the night is last year’s winner Kasthury, performing as the “sacrificial poet” to warm up the crowd and introduce slam mechanics to first-timers.
Admission is free. Doors open at 5.30pm
More info here.
