EXHIBITION: 'INSPIRED BY TEKAT'
Venue: Temu House, Petaling Jaya
Date: May 8-31
This month, the Temu House bungalow in Petaling Jaya is showing Inspired By Tekat, a group exhibition reimagining Malaysia’s traditional tekat embroidery.
Through a series of diverse styles and mediums, it offers audiences contemporary interpretations of the heritage craft.
Featuring artists such as Afiza Abubakar, Chau Xhien, Daisy Ooi, Hannah Nazamil, Nadirah Zakariya, Ummi Junid, Xeem Noor, Yann and Yante Ismail, the show is the inaugural project under 3R Media’s Arts Heritage Artists programme, supported by Yayasan Hasanah through the Arts for All Seasons (ArtsFAS) grant to sustain Malaysia’s artistic heritage.
Tekat, which dates back to the 15th-century Melaka Sultanate, is a traditional Malay embroidery technique involving the intricate couching of gold or silver threads over a raised fabric base to form elaborate motifs.
The exhibition also features demonstrations, artist talks and interactive sessions, inviting visitors to engage directly with the craft and its makers.
More info here.
BOOK EVENT: KL FESTIVAL - SPILL THE INK!
Venue: Muzium Telekom, Jalan Raja Chulan, KL
Date: May 9
A KL Festival programme without book lovers is hardly complete.
This Saturday, Spill The Ink! – a “pocket literary festival” – takes place at Muzium Telekom from 10am to 6pm, bringing together book launches, talks and readings featuring PEN Malaysia, Pusaka and IMAN Publication.
The programme includes Hidup Yang Derhaka, a literary rewind revisiting the reprint of pioneer writer Shamsuddin Salleh’s 1930s short stories – among the earliest works of Bahasa Malaysia fiction.
Another highlight, Goddesses, Demons And She Heroes, marks the launch of Kali In Conversation, a poetry collection by Mahi Ramakrishnan.
The festival also introduces Yellow, a new regional literary magazine, in a session featuring Pusaka creative director Pauline Fan in conversation with Vietnamese-Australian journalist Minh Bui Jones.
Admission is free.
More info here.
TRIBUTE EVENT: TAGORE FEST 2026
Venue: Menara BAC, Petaling Jaya
Date: May 9
Celebrating the legacy of Indian philosopher and polymath Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Brickfields Asia College (BAC) collaborates with the Malaysian Bengalee Association (MBA) and the Malaysia-India Heritage Society (MIHS) for Tagore Fest 2026 this Saturday, held in conjunction with his 165th birth anniversary.
The one-day event – 4pm to 10pm – honours one of the world’s most influential literary and cultural figures through a programme of conversations, performances and exhibitions that bring his enduring spirit to life.
Highlights include a forum featuring Prof Dr Saranindranath Tagore, a cultural showcase inspired by Desh o Prakriti (Nation & Nature), and an exhibition titled Southeast Asia Through Tagore’s Eyes.
The evening brings together literature, music, culture and heritage, reflecting Tagore’s timeless influence across borders and generations. Free admission.
More info here.
THEATRE: 'ODISI ROMANSA'
Venue: DPAC, Empire Damansara, Petaling Jaya
Date: May 8-10, May 14-17
Moka Mocha Ink and Ensembel Teater Kaos Nol’s Bahasa Malaysia sci-fi production Odisi Romansa launches into orbit this weekend, taking audiences on a journey toward the primordial gravity of the Bima Sakti’s (Milky Way) core.
Written and directed by Ridhwan Saidi, the Teater Normcore work dives into a universe sustained by memory, data and the remnants of human thought.
The 70-minute, no-intermission performance with English surtitles features three young actors – Roshafiq Roslee, Lee Qi and Aliya Marissa – as androids in a future where humanity has disappeared.
They are joined by a four-person ensemble of Irsyad Yahi, Aish Mirza, Gloria Mujan and Rashid Akhmal, who operate puppets that add a tactile layer to the production’s futuristic multimedia design.
The staging combines visuals by digital collective FabU with live performance, alongside a giant puppet by artist-sculptor William Koong. Soundscapes and music by Eff Hakim, costumes by Nurul Aizam, and set design by Liew Chee Heai complete the world-building.
More info here.
EXHIBITION: SILAS OO’S ‘ROADKILL’
Venue: The Back Room, Zhongshan building, KL
Date: May 9 to June 7
The Back Room's new solo exhibition, opening this Saturday, reframes something inherently unsettling through a different lens. In the wake of rapid urbanisation, animals increasingly appear on highways and busy streets – a reality KL-based multidisciplinary artist Silas Oo, known for his sculptures and fine line drawings, documents through pen and paper, preserving their tragic end.
Marking his first solo gallery outing and his first fully realised series, Roadkill comprises 10 drawings on paper, framed in custom, cut-to-size acrylic mounts.
In keeping with the bluntness of its title, Oo's works depict roadkill encountered across the city: bodies streaked and smeared across hot tar, rendered with stark immediacy, their forms at times interwoven with fragments of car parts to create hybrid chimera of machine and animal matter.
The artist will be present at the opening reception this Saturday at 3pm. Admission is free.
More info here.
EXHIBITION: 'INHERITED SOULS'
Venue: Galeri Puteh, KL Eco City, Kuala Lumpur
Date: ends May 23
Galeri Puteh is showing a husband-and-wife exhibition featuring Tengku Sabri Ibrahim and Mastura Abdul Rahman, two established figures in the Malaysian contemporary art landscape whose practices have developed since the 1980s.
Tengku Sabri is known for a career steeped in sculptural form and material experimentation, often drawing on cultural memory and symbolic references that bridge traditional and contemporary vocabularies.
At Galeri Puteh, he presents a series of wooden sculptures and drawings inspired by childhood bedtime stories narrated by his grandmother, alongside his enduring fascination with The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner by English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a favourite from his student years.
Mastura, meanwhile, has built a distinctive practice rooted in painting, where abstraction and figuration intersect through a refined sensitivity to surface, colour and composition.
An ancient Kelantanese queen inspires her seven mixed-media works, presented as Cerita Anak Wan Kembang. Drawing from the legend of Wan Kembang, the semi-mythical Kelantan ruler, the series reinterprets history through memory and myth, weaving fragments of feminine authority, royal symbolism and cultural inheritance.
The exhibition also includes debut drawings and doodles by their granddaughter Tengku Yasmin Naraya, or affectionately known as Yaya, introducing an intergenerational dialogue that extends the family’s artistic lineage.
More info here.
