First held in 2023, the Kuala Lumpur Illustration Fair (KLIF) has become one of the most highly anticipated events in the local creative scene, showcasing local as well as regional artists.

This year’s event, which ran from 1 to 4 May 2025, was bigger and better than ever, surpassing its 10k target to welcome 19,000 visitors – an over twofold increase from its 2024 edition.

Once again, the event was held at GMBB, a creative community mall located along Jalan Robertson in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. Knowing that parking would be a pain, N and I took the train and walked from Lalaport (about 15 – 20 minutes), arriving at the venue around 3pm.

I was expecting it to be crowded, but I wasn’t prepared for the sheer volume of humans on site, lol. Thankfully the queue was fast and we were able to purchase our day pass (RM20 per pax) to enter the first exhibition hall on the ground floor.

With over 180 featured artists, there were plenty of creative works to check out, from hand drawn art and digital illustrations, to posters, zines, toys, and postcards. Here are some of my favourites!

Above: Work by OC May. I’ve tried my best to list down booths that I took photos of, but since there were so many, I may not have gotten all of their profiles correctly. Ping me in the comments if you know which artist it is, so I can link to their profiles 🙂

One observation: illustrators like cats. There was a lot of cat art on display, which is fine by me. Here’s Second Floor Neko, who specialises in cat-themed illustrations.

The Last Suppaw, for the Cat-holic in your life. Twas’ so adorable I had to get it!

Stickers, also from the same artist.

Spesu Eki, a collective of illustrators who draw inspiration from 1980s Japanese games and entertainment.

Let’s take a break from the cats – here’s Munkao and his Kala Mandala project, a Southeast Asian fantasy role-playing game. It includes a 44-page rulebook complete with over 60 illustrations, featuring amazing characters inspired by Southeast Asian mythology. You can also download it online (name your own price) here.

Being an elder emo, it was nice to see Emo Trash & Etc – and that the culture is alive and well among younger folks!

Jylnnppg‘s pretty girl art – love the batik detailing (of course, cats as well + other cutesy animals).

Japanese artist Yukihiro Tada‘s Mosh series is fun, colourful, and whimsical, featuring furry characters visiting various parts of the world and sometimes fantasy-like settings.

Cats but make the style cute / dark. By The Real Marlis.

I’ve bought Kazel’s work before from Book Xcess as I like the dreamy, bishoujo style, which is reminiscent of older bishoujo mangas, so it’s nice to see her booth here too.

Can’t recall the artist, but there was a whole … toilet-themed booth complete with a toilet bowl and a poo-shaped plushie in it. Plus these cute poo (never thought I’d see these two words in one sentence) stickers – proving that true artists can make art out of literally any theme lol.

I think the simpler something is, the more difficult it is to convey properly- and that’s exactly why these minimalist cat illustrations by Lim Heng Swee / I Love Doodle, that morph into other objects, are so brilliant. Would love to have these as home decor. Unfortunately, did not have the budget at the time 🙁

Popped into a lifestyle store called Puji where they carried illustrations by artists like Sembang Sembang and Bunga Dan Bintang. Love the relatable girl boss / work quotes!

It was heartening to see the sheer amount of talent that participated in KLIF 2025, as well as the huge turnout – it gives me hope for the Malaysian creative scene amidst the rise of prompt ‘artists’ and the garbage that is AI drivel.

That being said, I think GMBB wasn’t made to cater to such a large number of visitors. There was barely any crowd control at the Greybox area, and it was so packed we weren’t able to move, as people crowded around the same booths.

Same thing happened on the upper floors: because the mall was made to house small, studio-like stores, the way the booths were set up (you had to enter each space and make a U-turn, since it’s not a long hall and not everything is connected) meant we missed a number of booths, because it was difficult to navigate + so crowded that we just skipped some areas. At the rate that they’re going, they’ll probably have to have the next KLIF in a convention centre proper.

Don’t get me wrong though – I thoroughly enjoyed the event, and I think it’s awesome how much passion and effort has gone into putting it together. As someone from the creative industry, I think it’s high time we had more of these to showcase our local talent, and act as a platform to bring like-minded people together, to gain ideas, inspiration, and just support the community.

Walked away with some beautiful postcards – I think I practiced a lot of self restraint in getting only a few lol.

Til the next edition of KLIF!

Keep updated with the latest news at https://klillustrationfair.my/.

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