EXHIBITION: 'ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG AND ASIA'
Venue: Ilham Gallery, Kuala Lumpur
Date: ends Nov 1
A major exhibition at Ilham Gallery, presented in collaboration with Hong Kong's M+, explores the Asian travels of Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008), one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.
Featuring more than 40 works created during and in response to his journeys across Asia between 1964 and 1990, the exhibition highlights a significant yet less-examined aspect of Rauschenberg's practice.
Throughout his travels, the legendary American artist drew inspiration from the people, places and materials he encountered, incorporating them into his multidisciplinary work.
The exhibition also holds particular significance for Malaysian audiences through its focus on the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI), the artist's international initiative promoting cultural exchange through art. Kuala Lumpur was among the cities included in the project, alongside Beijing, Lhasa and Tokyo, and hosted a ROCI exhibition in May 1990 during Rauschenberg's visit to Malaysia.
More than three decades later, the exhibition offers a rare opportunity to revisit a notable chapter in Malaysia's contemporary art history while tracing the profound influence Asia had on Rauschenberg's artistic development.
The free admission exhibition is accompanied by a monthly programme of events and activities that art enthusiasts are encouraged to explore.
More info here.
THEATRE: 'HUNGRY'
Venue: Pentas 2, KLPac
Date: June 18-21
While the Hungry Ghost Festival is traditionally a time when spirits return to roam among the living, Hungry offers a different kind of haunting altogether.
Opening tonight at KLPac, the production directed by Christopher Ling explores love, loss, memory and the longing for connection through the story of a family of four grappling with grief and unfulfilled dreams.
The play also marks the long-awaited return of Singaporean playwright Desmond Sim, whose first new work in 11 years premieres not on home soil, but in Kuala Lumpur – a welcome treat for local theatregoers.
Set against the backdrop of the Hungry Ghost Festival, Hungry asks what might happen if we move beyond fear and step closer to the rituals and offerings that appear across neighbourhoods each year.
Rather than relying on scares, the play uses the festival's symbolism to examine remembrance, family bonds and the enduring ache of human connection.
The cast features playwright and educator Mark Beau de Silva as family patriarch Dan, alongside Anrie Too, Gabriel Tham and Virtuoes Romana. Ling previously directed Sim's Postcards From Rosa and The Swimming Instructor for Kuala Lumpur audiences.
The new production is accompanied by a free exhibition of photographs by Sarawak-based street photographer Jee Foong, documenting Hungry Ghost Festival celebrations at Kuching's historic Hiang Thian Siang Ti Temple. It highlights the festival's rituals and cultural significance, offering visitors a deeper appreciation of the stories and traditions behind the observance.
The theatre production Hungry incorporates smoke effects from burning incense and is recommended for audiences aged 13 and above.
More info here.
MINI EXHIBITION: CC KUA'S 'GOING BANANAS'
Venue: Tsutaya Books, Pavilion Bukit Jalil, KL
Date: ends June 29
Artist, educator and familiar face on the zine festival circuit, CC Kua is going bananas this month at Tsutaya Books in Pavilion Bukit Jalil.
Until June 29, visitors can view a selection of her large-scale banana paintings, alongside a curated display of her art zines and books that have influenced her creative practice.
For newcomers, Kua's Going Bananas series began in 2020 after she discovered she could paint watercolour on canvas, a departure from her usual paper-based work.
By applying pigment and lifting it with a dry brush, she inadvertently created a dreamy, batik-like effect that would come to define the series' fever-dream aesthetic. Using the banana as a point of departure, the paintings unfold into subconscious landscapes inspired by places Kua imagines inhabiting.
Also available are two zines: a sketchbook compilation featuring drawings produced between 2020 and 2025, and 10:10, a playful publication that explores a curious question – why do so many clocks in advertisements appear frozen at 10:10?
With free admission, Kua's Going Bananas welcomes the public to browse, enjoy and perhaps even go home with a favourite artwork.
Tsutaya Books is located in L2 Orange Zone of Pavilion Bukit Jalil and is open daily from 10am to 10pm.
More info here.
FOLK MUSIC: 'WARGA' ALBUM REISSUE LAUNCH
Venue: Scream! Bloody! Bar! (SBB), Level 1, Zhongshan building, KL
Date: June 20, 8pm
Folk musician, arts activist and academic Azmyl Yunor – one of the few surviving active singer-songwriters from his generation - will be launching the reissue of his now-classic 2010 folk album Warga in limited cassette format at Scream! Bloody! Bar! at the Zhongshan building this Saturday.
The supporting acts in the launch gig is a throwback to the heyday of the then-emerging KL singer-songwriter scene featuring Sharidir (also known as Sherry, one of the pioneering Central Market buskers in the 1980s and 1990s), Ariff Akhir (fellow singer-songwriter journeyman who is also a frequent collaborator as co-producer and engineer of Azmyl's Warga and John Bangi Blues albums), and Tan Sei Hon, a pioneer in the Troubadours and KL Sing Song communities.
The concert reunites some of the leading figures of Kuala Lumpur's singer-songwriter movement, which gained prominence in the 2000s.
Originally launched to a full house at the now-defunct No Black Tie in May 2010, the album captured the mood of a Malaysia undergoing significant political and social change in the years following the 2008 General Election. Its cover image, depicting traffic outside Pudu Raya, would later gain added resonance when the area became a focal point of the 2011 Bersih 2.0 rally.
To mark the reissue, a limited run of 80 cassettes will be available at RM30 each, complete with a Bandcamp download code and complimentary stickers. A mini local tour is also expected to be announced.
Entry to the show is RM25.
More info here.
EXHIBITION: JUSTIN LIM’S ‘PAINTINGS FOR THE OBSERVER AND THE OBSERVED'
Venue: Richard Koh Fine Art, A Place Where (APW), Bangsar, KL
Date: ends July 18
Malaysian gallery Richard Koh Fine Art, which has expanded its regional presence in recent years, returns to Kuala Lumpur with a new concept: a window gallery dedicated to intimate, focused exhibitions. Its inaugural presentation is Justin Lim's Paintings For The Observer And The Observed.
Built around two paintings, the exhibition – Lim's first Kuala Lumpur show in seven years – examines the often-overlooked details of domestic life.
Through carefully composed interiors filled with artworks, books, plants, objects and curiosities, Lim transforms familiar spaces into layered and contemplative visual narratives.
Central to the exhibition is the act of looking itself. The relationships between observer and observed, artist and collector, as well as the tension between intimacy and distance, quietly unfold across the works.
By paying close attention to what fills a room — and to those who inhabit and behold it — Lim's colourful paintings pose a simple yet resonant question: what does it mean to truly see, and to be seen in return?
Admission is free.
More info here.
EXHIBITION: 'SANDWICH (AN INTERGENERATIONAL DIALOGUE IN MALAYSIAN ABSTRACT ART)'
Venue: Wei-Ling Gallery, Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur
Date: ends July 18
Malaysian abstraction is in focus this month at Wei-Ling Gallery, which presents Sandwich (An Intergenerational Dialogue In Malaysian Abstract Art) – a compact survey of how non-representational practices have shifted across time and generations.
Abstraction has never settled into a single style or definition. Instead, it has been continually reshaped by artists responding to different contexts and concerns, moving between gesture and structure, material inquiry and process, as well as political, spiritual and conceptual registers.
Curated by Prissie Ong, the exhibition traces how abstraction in Malaysia has evolved alongside changing economic conditions, sociopolitical realities, artistic training and cultural anxieties.
Bringing together works by 12 artists – the late Cheong Laitong, Hamidi Hadi, Iwadh Mahadi, James Ly, Khabir Roslan, Kim Ng, Latiff Mohidin, Mark Tan, Nasrul Rokes, Yau Bee Ling, Yeoh Choo Kuan and Zulkifli Lee – it offers a cross-generational view of a field defined by variation rather than continuity.
The exhibition is open to walk-ins, but the gallery strongly recommends booking in advance for a smoother visit.
More info here.
EXHIBITION: IWAN EFFENDI'S 'CO-PRESENCE'
Venue: The Back Room, Zhongsan building, KL
Date: ends July 12
The Back Room’s latest collaboration brings Jakarta-based contemporary artist and puppeteer Iwan Effendi back to Malaysia with Co-Presence, an exhibition that carries a distinctly theatrical sensibility.
Marking his second solo presentation in Kuala Lumpur – after Two Shoes For Dancing at the Valentine Willie Fine Art Project Room in 2009 – the show arrives more than a decade later, during which Iwan has become a prominent figure in Indonesian contemporary art, exhibiting widely and participating in international residencies.
Despite their pared-down facial features, the figures in his new paintings and drawings convey an acute sense of unease and uncertainty.
Dark, criss-crossing shadows and softened contours heighten a feeling of instability, while fragments of imagery suggest scenes suspended between nightmare and fairytale.
Together, Iwan's works hover in an ambiguous emotional space – where presence and absence, clarity and obscurity, coexist in tension.
More info here.
