If you’re not familiar with Lai Foong Moi’s works, then this exhibition will get you up to speed. More than six decades after her last solo presentation, the National Gallery has finally dedicated an exhibition, Crossings, to the Malayan-born Singaporean artist. Hailed an understated figure in local art history, Lai spent her formative years training at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore before moving to France to study. Her paintings spanned portraits, still lifes and landscapes, and often depicted women, labourers, and the city to capture life in Singapore during a transitional period.
One of the standout artworks featured at the exhibition is Crossing (Home Coming), a vibrant and captivating oil painting of two women and a boy on a boat. From afar, it may seem like a serene composition, but underneath Lai’s delicate brushstrokes is a nuanced reflection on migration and nationhood.
The exhibition is presented as part of National Gallery’s Dalam Singapore series, which frequently refreshes its walls to shine a light on lesser-known artists and stories in Singapore’s art history.
