BOOK EVENT: MOREH BUKU & THE DIPLOMAT'S ARCHIVE: UNSEALED
Venue: Tintabudi bookshop, TTDI Plaza, Kuala Lumpur
Date: Feb 28 and March 1
The independent bookshop Tintabudi is set for a lively weekend, beginning with its long Saturday night “Moreh Buku” – a relaxed late-night “book and chill” session where readers can linger over stories and conversation.
By day, the focus turns to "The Diplomat’s Archive: Unsealed", a special "Shelf Life" book sale featuring some 3,000 used volumes from the collection of the late Datuk N. Parameswaran (1948–2022), fondly known as Datuk Param.
A career diplomat with a deep passion for art and history, Datuk Param’s library spans art, culture, politics, history, exhibition catalogues, war and niche subjects, offering a rare glimpse into a life shaped by both diplomacy and intellectual curiosity.
Organised by his estate in collaboration with Tintabudi, the sale invites book lovers to discover treasures that carry stories beyond the page. Limited early bird passes remain, with the main sale running from 1 pm to 10 pm, promising a weekend where books connect people and a distinguished diplomat’s collection finds new homes.
More info here.
GALLERY TOUR: ILHAM KIDS' ART DISCOVERY TOURS
Venue: Ilham Gallery, Kuala Lumpur
Date: March 1
For more than a decade, Ilham Gallery has focused on one goal: bringing quality art and educational programmes to Malaysians.
In 2026, it deepens this commitment with a range of youth-focused initiatives aimed at making art accessible, engaging, and meaningful for the next generation.
Among these is the Ilham Kids’ Art Discovery Tours, running throughout March and early April.
Designed for children aged 7–12, these play-date–style tours have been part of Ilham Gallery’s outreach since 2015.
The first tour of the new season kicks off this Sunday, 10.30 am to 1 pm, alongside The Ilham Art Show 2025, with Art Tour Mums facilitators Li-Hsian Choo and Michelle Lim highlighting selected works, their mediums and the artists behind them.
More than a typical art class, it offers a gentle introduction to contemporary art, combining guided discussion with a hands-on activity. Fees are RM65 per child (with a parent) or RM60 with a sibling.
For bookings or enquiries, email: ilhamgallerykids@gmail.com.
More info here.
EXHIBITION: GAN TEE SHENG'S 'LUCID'
Venue: Galeri Sasha, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, KL
Date: Feb 28 to March 22
This Saturday, Galeri Sasha opens Lucid, a solo exhibition by Gan Tee Sheng. The show presents a new series of oil paintings developed over the past year, exploring memory as material. This is Gan’s first solo exhibition in nine years and his first with the KL gallery.
In Lucid, memory is treated not as event but as accumulation, shaped through form, surface, and space.
Paint is layered, scraped, and reworked, letting shapes emerge through pressure and repetition. Bodily fragments appear at the edge of recognition – limbs fold into objects, bodies dissolve into mass –while traces of revision on the surface hint at the instability at the heart of the work. In many ways, the paintings serve as self-portraits.
Gan has pursued a disciplined studio practice for more than 20 years, largely outside formal institutions. His work captures the psychological traces of lived experience, developing a visual language that shifts between figuration and abstraction. His pieces are held in the Ilham Gallery collection and in private collections across the region.
More info here.
EXHIBITION: 'MADE IN SOUTH TOKYO'
Venue: UR-MU @ Toffee, Level 4, The Project Room, Kuala Lumpur
Date: ends March 13
Ever wondered what happens when old school craftsmanship meets fresh creative energy? This exhibition offers a glimpse straight from Japan.
In South Tokyo’s Kamata-Omori neighbourhood lies one of the city’s densest clusters of small workshops – places where manufacturing is more than a job, it’s a way of life, passed down through generations. These are the machikoba: humble spaces where skilled hands shape metal, fabricate precision parts, and preserve knowledge that no textbook can teach.
Recently, a quiet shift has begun. Designers, architects, artists, and engineers are venturing into these workshops, curious about what emerges when tradition encounters experimentation.
This show brings together four projects from makers – Makoto Orisaki, Monon, Yochiya, and Yuta Shimoda – supported by FFF Tokyo, a new incubation programme based at KOCA, a local creative hub in the Japanese capital.
It offers a small window into the evolving craft culture of South Tokyo and an invitation to continue the conversation across Asia.
This exhibition, free admission, is part of the Kuala Lumpur Architecture Festival (KLAF) 2026 programme.
More info here.
EXHIBITION: HAMIDI HADI’S 'TRACING STILLNESS (MENJEJAK HENING)'
Venue: Wei-Ling Gallery, Brickfields, KL
Date: ends March 28
Hamidi Hadi, an artist and educator from Seri Iskandar, Perak, who teaches at UiTM, returns with his tenth solo show – a quieter, more reflective chapter in his practice.
His previous exhibition at Wei Ling Gallery, Trembling In Silence, was charged with emotion, a response to humanitarian crises that weighed heavily on him. This time, the energy shifts. Tracing Stillness explores calm and the search for peace amid uncertainty.
What sets Hamidi’s abstract works apart is how he approaches his surfaces – or, more precisely, how he doesn’t.
Rather than layering, he folds, tears, and peels materials away. Working with Chinese ink, enamel, acrylic, and oil, he creates depth and texture that invite viewers to engage on multiple levels.
From a distance, some pieces evoke the ambiguity of a Rorschach test, revealing more than meets the eye.
More info here.
EXHIBITION: XEEM NOOR’S 'BALAI DI BALAI” (TATEMONOLOGUE 2.0)
Venue: National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur
Date: ends April 8
Artist Xeem Noor brings a piece of Japan back to Kuala Lumpur with her installation Balai Di Balai (Tatemonologue 2.0), which kickstarts the Hanya Satu (Singles) spotlight series in the foyer of the National Art Gallery this year.
The work is a life-sized, soft recreation of the apartment she lived in during an artist residency in Yokohama. Constructed from knitted poles and printed fabric, it offers a cozy, walk-in memory of her time abroad, accompanied by photos and personal letters.
But the installation isn’t just a display. Xeem will host live crochet sessions every Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11am to 3pm throughout the exhibition, demonstrating her craft and gradually building a large collaborative crochet that grows layer by layer over time.
Visitors are invited to join in: the artist will provide needles and yarn, encouraging hands-on participation alongside the artist.
Ideal for lovers of textile art and "craftivism", this interactive exhibition blends memory, material, and community into a tactile experience.
More info here.
