Discovering the Best on the Last Day

by Arnaud | Sep 4, 2026 | Taste

5 min read

Discovering the Best on the Last Day

We went to Fotografiska Shanghai with every intention of seeing the exhibitions. We still haven’t made it upstairs.

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We got completely distracted by the museum shop.

We’re always looking for beautiful presents to bring home from a trip, and this is one of the best places we’ve found in Shanghai. There are wonderful photography books, prints and reproductions of photographs that you would actually want to frame and put on your wall. Proper presents, rather than another souvenir that says Shanghai on it.

Then there’s the food. The Fotografiska Café Bar is integrated into the art bookshop, and downstairs you’ll also find MONA by Fotografiska, their beautiful Mediterranean-inspired restaurant with Asian influences. Think black glazed tiled floors, cameras everywhere and tables outside overlooking the Suzhou River.

We had an amazing artisanal Chinese kombucha and incredibly delicious spicy fried mushrooms. But perhaps my favourite entertainment was simply sitting outside and watching the running clubs stream past. Shanghai, it turns out, takes its running very seriously. Groups and groups of runners kept appearing along the river while we sat very happily with our kombucha and mushrooms, doing absolutely no exercise whatsoever.

And one final, very important detail: perfect toilets.

A great museum shop, great food, a beautiful place to sit by the river and, apparently, there is also an excellent photography museum upstairs.

We’ll get to that next time.

Fotografiska Shanghai
127 Guangfu Road, Jing’an District, Shanghai

The Best 50 Yuan We Didn’t Spend

by Arnaud | Sep 4, 2026 | Culture

5 min read

The Best 50 Yuan We Didn’t Spend

Yesterday we walked into Pillars Gallery along Suzhou Creek and were told there was a 50 yuan entrance fee.

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We looked at each other and thought, ah, maybe not. We were literally on our way out when they very kindly said, “You know what, stay. You know the owner.”

Thank goodness we did. Pillars is an amazing space inside the historic Guang’er Warehouse, an old industrial building along the river. The gallery only opened in 2025, and its name comes partly from the extraordinary columns running through the building. It is one of those spaces where the architecture is almost as interesting as the art.

And then we discovered Li Chuangli. Born in Wuhan in 1991, Li Chuangli studied oil painting at Hubei Normal University and graduated in 2014. His work takes images and references from contemporary life, popular culture, advertising, commercial products and social media and turns them into these wonderfully strange oil paintings. There is something familiar about them, but also slightly unsettling. I absolutely loved them.

There was one enormous yellow painting that I completely fell for. It was 50,000 yuan, about RM30,000. Not that I could have afforded it, but it’s always good to dream. And anyway, it was already sold, so clearly it was not meant to be.

They always say with art that it isn’t really about what something costs. It’s about what it is worth to you, what you would pay if you could. And this one was just absolutely beautiful.

And then, of course, there is the Pillars Gallery Shop, which is dangerous in an entirely different way. I bought the most beautiful pair of 3D printed earrings with tiny drops of natural amber hanging underneath. They also had these extraordinary mirrors and a wonderful selection of objects and pieces that felt genuinely different. Not your usual gallery shop.

So what began with us almost walking out because we didn’t want to spend 50 yuan ended with discovering a young Chinese artist whose work I now love, buying a pair of earrings and adding another place to my Shanghai must-visit list.

Pillars Gallery is an absolute must.

Pillars Gallery
Guang’er Warehouse
195 Guangfu Road, Jing’an District, Shanghai

Only Eight of Each

by Arnaud | Sep 4, 2026 | Design

5 min read

Only Eight of Each

When we launched Herbs Malaya in April this year, I created a series of original acrylic paintings inspired by the herbs and ingredients that have always been part of my kitchen.

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I took these familiar plants, deconstructed them and enlarged them, looking at their flowers, leaves, stems and extraordinary shapes in a completely different way. Things I cook with all the time suddenly became something else entirely when taken out of the kitchen and put onto canvas.

And now we’re adding five more to the series: lengkuas, asam jawa, halia, bunga lawang and moringa. Galangal, tamarind, ginger, star anise and moringa, transformed from something familiar into something to hang on your wall.

We’re printing just eight of each illustration. They’ll be available framed or unframed from our Penang store, and we can also ship them anywhere in the world.

So if you have a particular love for halia, can’t cook without lengkuas, or simply think bunga lawang is one of nature’s most perfect shapes, now is your chance.

Only eight of each. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.

Contact Brandon for more information

Black Spine, Green Leaves

by Arnaud | Sep 4, 2026 | Events

5 min read

Black Spine, Green Leaves

If you love books, paper, stationery and all those little things you probably don’t need
but somehow always end up taking home, The Campus is the place to be this weekend.

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From 4 to 6 September, Books & Board Games is taking over The Assembly Hall for three days of books, games, creativity, local makers, food and plenty to browse.

And of course, we’re joining in too.

Over at Nala The Campus, our library cart will be out with our totes, Shuppato bags, art prints and, very appropriately for this weekend, our black-spine notebooks in Pandanus and Snow Pea Leaf.

It’s only happening this weekend at Nala The Campus. Just show us this newsletter when you come by.

Come for the books, stay for a board game, buy some stationery you absolutely don’t need, have something to eat and then come and say hello to us.

Books & Board Games
4 to 6 September
10am to 10pm
The Assembly Hall, The Campus

I Stumbled Upon Freakebana

by Arnaud | Aug 28, 2026 | Taste

5 min read

I Stumbled Upon Freakebana

I came across these photographs on Instagram and loved them so much that I had to share them.
And I learned a new word in the process: Freakebana. A wonderfully strange, playful take on ikebana,
where flowers meet fruit, vegetables and the most unexpected everyday objects.

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These particular images are from a collaboration between Bendang Studio and Saudagar General Store, but for me, they are really an accolade to Ifzan, whom I have known for a very long time and whose creativity I have always adored.

If I remember correctly, Ifzan started experimenting with flower arrangements during lockdown, and since then he has turned it into an art form very much his own. He has an incredible eye for colour and composition, and that rare ability to look at something completely ordinary and see something else.

Here, Bendang’s beautiful handmade ceramics become part of the arrangement. Bowls, cups and plates are filled with flowers, foliage, vegetables and fruit, while humble produce is stacked and balanced into strange little sculptures and miniature totems. It is floristry, still life and sculpture all at once.

Ifzan is married to Miwa, the Japanese cook behind Masak with Miwa, so perhaps it is no surprise that food, colour, flowers and creativity seem to live so happily under one roof.

I have wanted to create something with Ifzan for years. With our new shop opening in April, I am hoping this might finally be the moment.

For now, I am simply very happy I stumbled upon his Freakebana.

Bendang Studio × Saudagar General Store

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