EXHIBITION: 'UNTITLED' GROUP SHOW
Venue: GMBB creative mall, Kuala Lumpur
Date: ends June 7
Untitled is a visual art group exhibition under KL Festival that invites audiences to respond to works – no labels, no titles, no artist names – through personal interpretation, without prior context from the artists.
Viewers can write reflections on site using purchased “gift letters” (RM2) and place them alongside the artworks, with all proceeds channelled directly to participating artists.
In a rare intervention in the exhibition ecosystem, Untitled offsets the typical financial burdens of emerging artists — including submission fees, production costs and logistical constraints — positioning itself as a more accessible platform for early-career practice.
Launched through an open call across mediums, the (ticketed) art show features 127 artists and 329 works, with admission fees also pooled and redistributed to support the participating artists.
A series of public forums this Sunday (1pm–6pm) extends the programme, opening up accessible discussions on what defines art, how artists sustain practice and how exhibitions are built.
The exhibition – held on the 5th floor of GMBB – is curated by a young team including Danielle Lin, Jakob van Klang, Nurunnuha Md Alwi, Haymie Yu Xin Yi, Lorrain Tan and Kimberley Boudville.
Untitled is one of the supporting arts, culture and heritage initiatives under Arts for All Seasons (ArtFAS 2026), an initiative by Yayasan Hasanah.
More info here.
THEATRE: KL FESTIVAL - 'LESSONS OF SILENCE'
Venue: The Godown, Kuala Lumpur
Date: May 22 and 23
The third weekend of the KL Festival settles firmly into theatre, turning downtown Kuala Lumpur into a cluster of stages where stories emerge across pedestrian bridges, courtyards and performing arts spaces.
Among the highlights, Indonesian multidisciplinary artist and playwright Agnes Christina brings a regional gem with Lessons Of Silence - a wordless theatre work that speaks entirely through movement, image and tension.
Her stories are told through a diversity of media including theatre, performance, painting, embroidery and fashion.
Lessons Of Silence, which will be staged at The Godown on May 22 and 23, follows a young girl moving through her day with ease and joy – attending school, heading to English class, and playing badminton with neighbourhood friends.
That calm is abruptly broken when her parents cut the game short.
The atmosphere shifts into tension and urgency as she begins preparing to evacuate, while her father rushes to gather valuables and important documents. Radios and televisions erupt in a chaotic chorus of alarming updates.
In KL, the performance features Budi S. Gemak and Sora Gia, tracing race, class and the fragile intimacies of parent-child dynamics.
More info here.
PANGROK SULAP AT BORNEO NATIVE FESTIVAL 2026
Venue: Central Market, Kuala Lumpur
Date: May 22-24
As the Kaamatan and Gawai harvest festivals approach in Sabah and Sarawak, Borneo Native Festival 2026 brings the spirit of Borneo to the heart of Kuala Lumpur, celebrating Sabah and Sarawak’s rich arts, culture, heritage, food and creative traditions through this weekend celebration.
Among the most anticipated pop-up highlights is Pangrok Sulap, the Ranau via Kota Kinabalu-based woodcut collective known for its striking graphic language and socially engaged practice that blends art, activism and community empowerment.
At the festival, the collective will showcase its latest prints, patches, artworks, T-shirts and books, offering audiences a chance to learn about its grassroots ethos and distinctive visual storytelling.
This year, Rizo Leong, one of Pangrok Sulap’s founders, will also present his book Misi Membawa Cahaya Ke Pedalaman, alongside a limited-edition series of prints.
The book documents the collective’s journey of bringing solar energy systems to remote interior communities in Sabah – a project that extends beyond infrastructure, reflecting ideas of light, shared labour, and the inspiring power of community-led change.
More info here.
EXHIBITION: SILAS OO’S ‘ROADKILL’
Venue: The Back Room, Zhongshan building, KL
Date: ends June 7
The Back Room's new exhibition 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.
Admission is free.
More info here.
EXHIBITION: TULIKA PRAKASH'S 'I AM THE UNIVERSE'
Venue: KL City Art Gallery, Publika
Date: ends May 31
Colour, texture and memory come alive at KL City Art Gallery through I Am The Universe, a solo exhibition by India-born mixed media artist Tulika Prakash.
Featuring more than 20 works fashioned from reclaimed artisanal textiles, the exhibition transforms the gallery space into a richly layered meditation on identity, heritage and human experience.
A self-taught artist, Tulika embraced the creative path later in life, creating works that move beyond the conventional through the use of pre-loved fabrics, embroidery, mosaic and painting.
Her exhibition asks an intimate yet expansive question: what does it mean to be human, and where does the self end and the universe begin? Guided by spiritual philosophy and poets such as Rumi and Khalil Gibran, Tulika approaches identity as fluid and interconnected, positioning humanity as part of a larger rhythm of creation.
For Tulika, reclaimed textiles serve as vessels of memory and heritage, carrying traces of lived experience. Their transformation into art mirrors her own spiritual and personal journey, shaped by years spent living across Malaysia, India and the United States.
Tulika will launch the exhibition this Saturday at 3pm. Free admission.
More info here.
EXHIBITION: 'INSPIRED BY TEKAT'
Venue: Temu House, Petaling Jaya
Date: ends May 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.
EXHIBITION: 'MIXED MEDIA FROM THE GOLDEN PERIOD OF MALAYSIAN CONTEMPORARY ART'
Venue: The Drawing Room, Yap Ah Shak House, Kuala Lumpur
Date: ends May 31
Between the 1980s and 2010s, amid Malaysia’s rapid development and shifting lifestyles, mixed media emerged as a defining approach in the country’s contemporary art movement.
By combining materials such as metal, wood, photography, print, everyday objects and recycled matter, artists expanded visual experimentation while reflecting the social, cultural and identity shifts shaped by urbanisation and modernisation.
A group exhibition featuring 32 works by 20 Malaysian artists from the Aliya & Farouk Khan (AFK) Collection traces this evolution of mixed media practice.
Featured artists include Ahmad Shukri, Fauzan Omar, Ahmad Fuad Osman, Zulkifli Yusoff, Hasnul J. Saidon, Rajinder Singh, Shooshie Sulaiman, Choy Chun Wei, Justin Lim, Umibaizurah Mahir Ismail, Abdullah Jones and Tan Chin Kuan.
Presented at Yap Ah Shak House’s The Drawing Room, the exhibition shows how artists used mixed media to reflect a rapidly changing society, with traces of landmarks such as the Petronas Twin Towers and Kuala Lumpur Tower, as well as expanding highways and shifting urban life, embedded within the works.
More info here.
