Artist Profile: James Lai

James Lai stages a theatre of natural delights and cautionary tales under the endearing guise of the Australian landscape. Thomas Kusturin writes.

James Lai’s sweeping panoramas depict the quiet endurance of a natural world that, in its own particular way, appears to playfully mirror the turbulent shifts of a culturally changing world. With his work recognised in numerous national painting awards and in collections in Australia and Europe, it’s worth paying attention to.

Lai’s figurative abstraction fuses colour, composition and texture into imaginative and dynamic interactions. Sweeping scenes of the Blue Mountains and Southern Highlands in NSW are rendered in a playful way; mountains are blue, trees are green and night skies shimmer with glistening stars against an oddly sun soaked ground. There is a gentle comedy in these works, and while they may at first glance appear obvious, they are constructed in a way that disrupts our natural perspective. “I see the landscape as a theatrical play… with its range of elemental characters and the dynamism of movement, drama and mood.”

Lai plays with our natural understanding of perspective and distance so that we at once feel intimate and peripheral to his constructed worlds. His colour palette animates the wild country he seeks to capture into lucid dream-like landscapes. “The weather can have a major effect on the aesthetic and mood of the landscape and I try to capture on canvas the dynamic atmospheric shifts that occur in nature,” he says. “To me, it mirrors changes in society and the many different attitudes to major issues in the world.”

In works like View from Narrow Neck Lookout or Night Skies, one instantly feels the physicality of Lai’s practice; sweeping brush strokes stop abruptly and layers of paint weave through one another. Yet underpinning each stroke is a story rich with personal and political potency. Lai skilfully recognises the ephemeral in the figurative and seeks in the Australian landscape a means of translating contemporary life.

Featured image: artist James Lai. Photo: John Lim. Courtesy: the artist.

More Artists Profiles from Recent issues

Artist Profile: Josh Robbins

Armed with a flair for the unorthodox, Josh Robbins continues to reinvent himself and his art following an early career in advertising, sharing compelling visions of the world along the way. Charlotte Middleton writes.

Artist Profile: Linda Riseley

With an instinct for authentic expression, Linda Riseley built an international career by channelling difficult experiences into a poignant art practice. Surprisingly, her great uncle just might have known that this would happen all along. Charlotte Middleton writes.

Artist Profile: Corinne Melanie

A trip to Europe in early 2020 saw Corinne Melanie rediscover her art. Now, as she explores new frontiers in her practice, she’s perfecting the merge of the classical with the modern. Erin Irwin writes.

Artist Profile: Michael Gromm

There is no undo button in paint, says Michael Gromm. Armed with this philopshpy, the artist ventures colours, shapes and all into a realm of scientific possiblity and elastic bliss. Words by Erin Irwin.

Artist Profile: Mandy Smith

Wanting to return to her photographic roots, Barkindji artist Mandy Smith picked up her camera during the pandemic and made her way back to her love of visual storytelling, something which now takes place under the stars of her hometown. Pramila Chakma writes.

Artist Profile: Zoë Croggon

Zoë Croggon knows how to get our minds to play. With artworks that feature sensual blends of faces, lips and cheek, she’s perfected the dance of leaving us leaning in and lingering at the edge. Words by Nabila Chemaissem.