A–Z of Southeast Asian Art: A Critical Dictionary — Muara Arts, Kuala Lumpur, 1 November 2026 – 4 April 2027

Medan Pasar is where Kuala Lumpur began: the old market square at the point where the Klang and the Gombak rivers meet, a few steps from the Sultan Abdul Samad Building. On 1 November 2026 a row of six Art Deco shophouses from the 1930s on that square reopened as Muara Arts, a not-for-profit public gallery for Malaysian and Southeast Asian art. Its inaugural exhibition, A–Z of Southeast Asian Art: A Critical Dictionary, runs until 4 April 2027.

The buildings were not demolished and rebuilt. The gallery, designed by Dr. Tan LM Architect and Sean Carpenter of Linear Vista, is an adaptive reuse of the six shophouses, which together span approximately 16,000 square feet, and the project set out to keep the historic character of the buildings while fitting them with museum-standard facilities. The gallery is part of a wider cultural revitalisation of the area around Medan Pasar, which the founders describe as a historic market square; a performing arts theatre, with a 345-seat proscenium auditorium and a 190-seat black box, is due to follow in 2029.

The exhibition takes its form from The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia (2017–ongoing), the generative work by the Singaporean artist Ho Tzu Nyen. It presents painting, sculpture, textile, installation, video and works on paper by more than forty artists from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam. Each work engages with a term that reflects the region’s culture, ecology, geography, history or politics, so the show reads as an alphabet of the region rather than a survey.

Muara Arts began as a not-for-profit initiative of the Creador Foundation and is now overseen by the newly established Muara Arts Foundation. Its founders are Shanthi Kandiah and Brahmal Vasudevan; the consultant artistic director is Lydia Yee, formerly chief curator of the Whitechapel Gallery in London. In October 2026 the gallery announced the appointment of Chris Lee, from the National Gallery Singapore, as Chief Executive Officer. The name is the Malay word for estuary or river mouth, chosen for the confluence outside the door.

Practical details

• Dates: 1 November 2026 – 4 April 2027
• Where: Muara Arts, 18, Medan Pasar, City Centre, 50050 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Opening hours: Wednesday to Monday, 10am–6pm
• Tickets and information: muaraarts.org

Cultural Heritage Online lists this exhibition because the gallery that houses it is itself a piece of heritage put back to work: six 1930s Art Deco shophouses on the square where the city was founded, kept standing and given a public use, and because the show opens a new public institution for the art of a whole region.