10 Years of ILHAM Gallery

Filling an institutional gap in Kuala Lumpur

My Own Words is a monthly series which features personal essays by practitioners in the Southeast Asian art community. They deliberate on their locality's present circumstances, articulating observations and challenges in their respective roles.

The Body Politic and the Body, 2019-2020, an exhibition collaboratively organised by ILHAM Gallery and Singapore Art Museum. Exhibition view in ILHAM Gallery, Kuala Lumpur. Image courtesy of ILHAM Gallery.

ILHAM Gallery in Kuala Lumpur, where I am Gallery Director, celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. When we opened in 2015 as a privately-funded public art gallery, we wanted to fill the institutional gap that existed in a landscape primarily occupied by commercial galleries. We wanted to create a space where, through our exhibitions and public programming, people could connect to artists and their ideas, and conversations about art would revolve around its intrinsic worth, and not just its monetary value.

Unlike most private art museums, we do not have a permanent exhibition of our collection.  Our mandate is to create a public space where education and scholarship are privileged over showcasing the collection. Therefore, we borrow works for rotating exhibitions with the aim to connect with diverse artistic practices in the region and beyond. This has been possible because of collaborations with institutions such as Para Site in Hong Kong, MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum in Chiang Mai, National Gallery Singapore, Singapore Art Museum and the Han Nefkens Foundation, among others. 

Performance of Tamil folk songs, in collaboration with Plantation Life and organised in conjunction with The Plantation Plot (2025). Image courtesy of ILHAM Gallery.

Earlier this year, we partnered with KADIST, a non-profit arts organisation based in Paris, to present The Plantation Plot (2025), an exhibition which examines the global legacy of plantations. The show featured 28 artists and collectives largely from Southeast Asia and the Americas, and was curated by emerging curator Sheau Yun Lim. Beyond offering our audiences the opportunity to see artworks from such diverse geographies, we see such programmes as platforms to build conversations around important global issues from climate change and indigenous land rights to authoritarianism and labour practices. We are also long-term partners of POLLINATION, a platform which connects emerging curators and artists in Southeast Asia, initiated by in-tangible institute in Thailand. In April, we presented the palms of y/our hands (2025) which resulted from a year-long collaboration among curators and artists from Malaysia and Myanmar.

Nirmala Dutt: Statements, 2023, exhibition view at ILHAM Gallery, Kuala Lumpur. Image courtesy of ILHAM Gallery and Kenta Chai.

Closer to home, we also use our exhibition programming as an opportunity to reframe aspects of our art history. Efforts include thematic group exhibitions that contextualise Malaysian art within a broader socio-political framework, as well as survey exhibitions of artists whose practices or specific bodies of work may have been overlooked. For example, we held a survey exhibition titled Nirmala Dutt: Statements (2023). Nirmala was a pioneer Malaysian woman artist, whose work was already addressing issues concerning the environment and climate change in the 1970s. She was also the first artist to present an installation work at the National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur in 1973. By dedicating resources to scholarly research and major exhibitions, we see our role as filling some of these gaps in our art history.

ILHAM Art Show 2022, 2022, exhibition view at ILHAM Gallery, Kuala Lumpur. Image courtesy of ILHAM Gallery.

Another key focus is in supporting contemporary artists in Malaysia, particularly in the making of experimental and conceptual works. In 2021, we initiated the ILHAM Art Show, a triennial open call exhibition that encourages innovation and risk-taking by providing artists in Malaysia the resources to pursue new work which they may not have had the opportunity to realise previously. From among the open call applicants, artists were selected by a regional panel, and were then awarded a production grant. In November 2025, we will be opening the second edition of the ILHAM Art Show presenting new works by 20 artists & collectives.

Dance performance in response to Pinaree Sanpitak's Breast Stupa Topiary (2013). Image courtesy of ILHAM Gallery.

Puppet parade and performance by children from the Mah Meri community in Sg Bumbun and the Temuan community in Pulau Kempas, on 30 August 2025. An event organised in conjunction with The Plantation Plot exhibition (2025). Image courtesy of ILHAM Gallery.

Beyond our free admission policy, we do our best to make programming accessible. One of my first priorities was to further develop our  audiences. Our public programming is cross-cultural, and includes music, performing arts and film so that we could not only attract more visitors, but also engage with artists from other disciplines around the key ideas of the exhibitions.   

We also find ways to invite our audiences to play a role in shaping ILHAM’s programme. In an effort to invite teenagers and young adults into the life of the gallery, we set up a student council comprising secondary school students in 2022. They organise events for their peers, and occasionally take over our social media. In fact, it was also the student council who initiated the gallery’s TikTok account. I am most proud of the fact that 10 years on, the largest audience demographic are those aged 28 and below.

Skola Gambar ILHAM, a mobile gallery housed inside a climate-controlled shipping container. Image courtesy of ILHAM Gallery.

Children experiencing artworks by Malaysian contemporary artists in Skola Gambar ILHAM. Image courtesy of ILHAM Gallery.

Now that we have grown a community around the gallery, we are looking at ways where we can connect to more people and expand our reach, by taking our artworks out of the white cube and sharing it with communities living outside the city centre. In conjunction with ILHAM’s 10th year anniversary, we launched Skola Gambar ILHAM in July 2025, a mobile gallery housed in a 40-foot climate-controlled shipping container which will travel throughout the country by truck to reach a wide variety of audiences. We curated an exhibition featuring Malaysian contemporary artists, with works ranging from painting, collage and printmaking to sculptures, video, and photography. In August, the mobile gallery travelled to low-cost flats, schools, and public squares around the Klang Valley. Over the next two years, we intend to bring it to the rest of the country, including to Sarawak and Sabah in East Malaysia. 

While logistically challenging, this has been one of our most meaningful projects to date. It is incredibly inspiring to see both kids and adults, who previously may not have access to contemporary art due to socio-economic reasons, respond so enthusiastically to works by Malaysian artists.

As we move towards the next decade, projects such as Skola Gambar ILHAM remind us of the importance of remaining accessible to as wide an audience as possible, and taking an inclusive and collaborative approach in supporting the essential work that artists do in helping us understand ourselves, each other, and the world we live in. 

ILHAM Art Show 2025 is on view from 1 November 2025 to April 2026.