This new exhibition at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia is the culmination of nearly 15 years of research, with the museum's collection at the heart of this celebration of Palestinian cultural heritage.
Tatreez – the Arabic word for embroidery – has long served as a powerful visual language among Palestinian women.
Through embroidered textiles, garments, and accessories, the exhibition offers insight into Palestinian history, with many of the works representing some of the few possessions preserved through the forced displacement of Palestinians from their homeland.
The exhibition spans two galleries. Special Gallery 1 explores how traditional motifs and regional embroidery traditions are reinterpreted through contemporary practice while remaining rooted in identity, memory, and belonging. From everyday attire to ceremonial dress, embroidered garments once conveyed a woman's region, social status, and life stage without words.
Special Gallery 2 showcases the diversity of Palestinian regional embroidery through garments, textiles, colour palettes, and headdresses. Organised into 10 regions – Galilee, Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Hebron, Jaffa, Ramlah–Lydda, Gaza, and the Naqab – the gallery highlights the distinctive styles, materials and motifs that define each locality.
The Tatreez exhibition will be accompanied by a series of public programmes, including talks and workshops, held throughout its run.
More info here.
The Kuala Lumpur Reading Festival (KLRF) offers a wide-range of book-related content for all bookworms and bibliophiles out there. This inaugural edition, presented by BooKu and collaborators, features a 24-hour bookstore and many more activities.
Carrying the theme “Joy of Missing Out: A Celebration of Reading for the Distracted Generation”, the two-day event celebrates reading, books, and literary culture that brings together readers, booksellers, publishers, writers, translators and literary communities.
KLRF will feature more than 30 exhibitors representing Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and English-language reading communities, alongside over 20 programmes including author talks, literary conversations, book clubs, workshops, open mic sessions, and industry dialogues.
Festival highlights include a used books market, The Chill Project, a phone-free immersive experience, a 24-Hour Bookstore experience by BooKu, Poetry On The Spot, Whisper Corner and Book Walk Before Sunrise.
Over the weekend, Zontiga will also present an all-night photography camp out as part of the programme.
The festival's programme also explores the broader literary ecosystem in Malaysia through discussions on independent publishing, multilingual bookselling, and literary translation. Featured speakers include filmmaker, writer and publisher Amir Muhammad, translator and playwright Adriana Nordin Manan, novelist Gong Wan Hui and many more.
Admission is free, except for The Chill Project.
More info here
Presented by community-based outfit Kongsi.Hub KL, this photojournalism and visual documentary exhibition brings together the work of media practitioners, documentary photographers and media organisations.
Terhubung – meaning both "connected" and "continuing" – explores the diverse realities of Malaysian society through the lenses of journalism and documentary practice.
Seen through the eyes of those who record them, these works serve not only as records of events but also as visual documents reflecting the intersections of people, information, technology and social change.
The exhibition is complemented by a series of public programmes, including talks with journalists and photographers, film screenings, community initiatives, and interactive sessions that offer deeper insight into media and visual storytelling. Featured speakers include Patrick Lee, Seth Akmal, Supian Ahmad, Aizuddin Saad, Shafwan Zaidon, Dr Ima Liana Esa, Shamshahrin Shamsudin and Zulfadhli Zaki.
The exhibition opens on Saturday at 12.30pm. Admission is free.
More info here.
Emerging artists take the spotlight in this group exhibition, which explores the dialogue between memory, observation, humour, and lived experience. Spanning painting, drawing, and mixed media, the exhibition examines how contemporary life is shaped through recollection, imagined landscapes, social commentary and personal reflection.
Each artist in Soft Structures brings a distinct perspective. Arash Jabbar transforms familiar townscapes and everyday scenes into evocative, half-remembered fragments shaped by time and distance.
Loqman Zanal constructs imagined landscapes that evoke quiet retreats, inviting contemplation and introspection. Jason Teo employs wit and absurdity to expose the contradictions of everyday life, while Annas Muzafar uses satire and visual play to examine vulnerability and the performative nature of social behaviour.
Together, their works form a thoughtful yet playful exhibition that continues Galeri Sasha's commitment to championing Kuala Lumpur's new talent in visual art.
More info here.
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.
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.
Malaysian abstraction is in focus 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.
