JAMES LAI | FEBRUARY 2026
James Lai
'Atlas of Things'
On view February 2026
Please contact the gallery to register your interest to preview.
In Atlas of Things, I look at the quiet presence of everyday objects and the imagined landscapes they sit within. The work shifts between still life and loosely formed terrain, using familiar shapes as markers of daily experience. Some of these objects carry personal connections, others are there simply because they caught my eye or offered a particular rhythm or balance within the painting.
I don’t try to give each object a defined story. Instead, I approach them with a kind of deliberate openness, allowing viewers to find their own points of resonance. The act of arranging and painting them becomes a way of paying attention, letting simple forms reveal their own character without ascribing meaning that doesn’t need to be there.
Over time, I’ve come to think of the everyday as its own kind of terrain, shaped by memory, habit, and the shifting relationships between things. Atlas of Things is my attempt to chart that terrain, to trace how objects settle, drift, and quietly shape the spaces we move through.
