Muara Arts Opens at Medan Pasar, Where Kuala Lumpur Began
Malaysia’s first not-for-profit gallery for Southeast Asian art opened on 1 November 2026 in six restored Art Deco shophouses, on the square where the city was born.
Kuala Lumpur began where two rivers meet. The Klang and Gombak join at Medan Pasar, the old market square that grew into a trading town and then a capital. For decades the square belonged to banks and finance houses. Now part of it belongs to art.
What is Muara Arts?
Muara Arts is Malaysia’s first not-for-profit gallery dedicated to Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art. It opened on 1 November 2026 at Medan Pasar in Kuala Lumpur, in six restored 1930s Art Deco shophouses covering about 20,000 square feet. It was founded by Shanthi Kandiah and Brahmal Vasudevan under the Creador Foundation, and its artistic director is Lydia Yee, former chief curator of London’s Whitechapel Gallery.
A name taken from the rivers
Muara means river mouth or estuary, and the name is deliberate. The gallery sits a short walk from the confluence that gave Kuala Lumpur its name, and it is meant to work the same way: as a meeting point where artists from across the region, and from its diaspora, come together.
The founders have described the move as a fitting reversal. Buildings that once held the city’s money now hold its culture.
The opening exhibition
The first show, A–Z of Southeast Asian Art: A Critical Dictionary, brings together more than 40 artists working in painting, sculpture, textiles, installation, video and works on paper. Curated by Lydia Yee and Zhen Feng Ang, it takes its structure from Singaporean artist Ho Tzu Nyen’s ongoing project The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia, using the alphabet to explore the region’s histories, cultures and identities.
Rather than telling one story of Southeast Asia, the exhibition sets many side by side.
Why it matters
Kuala Lumpur has commercial galleries, the National Art Gallery and private museums. What it has lacked is a not-for-profit space focused on the whole region, with the freedom to commission, publish and run learning programmes without needing to sell.
Muara Arts plans a year-round programme of rotating exhibitions, new commissions, education and publications. It is also part of a wider revival of Medan Pasar, which will bring performance spaces, cafés and restaurants to the square. For a district many Malaysians pass through but rarely stop in, that could change how the oldest part of the city is used.
Visiting Muara Arts
- Address: 18 Medan Pasar, City Centre, Kuala Lumpur
- Opened: 1 November 2026
- Current exhibition: A–Z of Southeast Asian Art: A Critical Dictionary
- Website: muaraarts.org
Frequently asked questions
What is the new art gallery at Medan Pasar? Muara Arts, Malaysia’s first not-for-profit gallery dedicated to Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art, opened on 1 November 2026.
Who founded Muara Arts? Shanthi Kandiah and Brahmal Vasudevan, under the Creador Foundation. Lydia Yee is its artistic director.
What is showing at Muara Arts? The opening exhibition, A–Z of Southeast Asian Art: A Critical Dictionary, features more than 40 artists from across the region.