In early July, Michael Reid Murrurundi will present our first solo exhibition from rising contemporary art star and National Emerging Art Prize finalist Heidi Lai. Titled Quiet Hours, the artist’s new series of oil paintings has now arrived at our Eora/Sydney gallery and can be previewed in person and by request.
“In our fast-paced world, moments of stillness have become rare treasures,” says Lai, whose streetscapes and interior scenes are brought to life with a beautiful balance of gauzy, wisp-like painterly gestures alongside areas of arresting and precisely rendered detail. “Quiet Hours captures these intimate pauses found in everyday life. Each canvas reveals the beauty in ordinary settings: kitchens, cafes and places where individuals pause, reflect and simply exist.”
Despite being environments where so many of us dwell in an increasingly urbanised contemporary Australia, these semi-public spaces are often eschewed in the popular artistic imagination in favour of domestic scenes or unspoilt landscapes. This makes Lai’s choice of subject feel immediately fresh and is, indeed, an enduring theme of her work, which draws the viewer’s focus towards overlooked or fleeting moments from our everyday reality and freezes flashes of memory with emotional resonance.
“Drawing inspiration from my upbringing in Hong Kong, a bustling metropolis, I quietly observe the interaction with humans and their surroundings,” says Lai, who has presented her work in solo and group shows in Australia and London and, in addition to her NEAP shortlisting, has been a finalist in the Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition.
Lai describes the oil paintings of Quiet Hours as a celebration of the beauty of being present. “Each canvas reveals figures absorbed in their thoughts, creating a moment of stillness within bustling spaces,” she says. “They invite us to recognise the contemplative figures we encounter daily.”
To request a preview, secure an acquisition or book a private, in-person viewing at Michael Reid Sydney before the works travel to Murrurundi, please email colinesoria@michaelreid.com.au