Central Station

2013 - Painting (Painting)

Firenze Lai


Central Station, Alignment, and Sumo are “situation portraits” that present whimsical characters within distorted and troubling worlds. These portraits explore the relationship between the psyche and contemporary social environments, focusing on isolation, identity, and distress. Central Station shows a character reaching to wipe a tear from her face as the blues of her wardrobe seem to blend in with the dismal blue of the background. In each of the portraits, Lai explores how individuals adapt to their environments and the ways in which bodies communicate emotions for which there are no adequate words.


Firenze Lai is a Hong Kong painter known for her atmospheric portraits that explore the ways in which contemporary life causes people to adjust to their surrounding conditions in disturbing ways. She paints by immersing herself in the state of mind and situation of each character. Her work was exhibited at the New Museums 2015 Triennial and the Shanghai Biennale (2014).


Colors:



Related works featuring themes of: » Architecture's Effects, » Contemporary Faux Naïf, » Figurative Art, » Gestural  
» see more

Justice
© » KADIST

Zai Kuning

2014

Justice (2014) presents viewers with a curious assemblage: a wooden gallows with slightly curved spindles protruding from the topmost plank, which in turn is covered with rudimentary netting, the threads slackly dangling like a loose spider’s web or an rib cage that’s been cracked open...

Map (from Uncertain Pilgrimage), 2006-2009
© » KADIST

Gareth Moore

2006

Uncertain Pilgrimage is an ongoing project in which Moore draws from his unplanned travels in recent years...

Peg and Jon
© » KADIST

John Houck

2013

Houck’s Peg and John was made as part of a series of photographic works that capture objects from the artist’s childhood...

Last Postcards
© » KADIST

Elisheva Biernoff

2009

Last Postcards is a series of three small double-sided paintings on plywood in which Biernoff imagines the last communications from explorers lost in the wilderness...

Other related works, blended automatically  
» see more

Alignment
© » KADIST

Firenze Lai

2013

Central Station, Alignment, and Sumo are “situation portraits” that present whimsical characters within distorted and troubling worlds...

Justice
© » KADIST

Zai Kuning

2014

Justice (2014) presents viewers with a curious assemblage: a wooden gallows with slightly curved spindles protruding from the topmost plank, which in turn is covered with rudimentary netting, the threads slackly dangling like a loose spider’s web or an rib cage that’s been cracked open...

Map (from Uncertain Pilgrimage), 2006-2009
© » KADIST

Gareth Moore

2006

Uncertain Pilgrimage is an ongoing project in which Moore draws from his unplanned travels in recent years...

Captain X
© » KADIST

Luke Butler

2008

In Captain X , Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, played by William Shatner, is limply draped over a large boulder in what looks like a hostile alien environment...

Related works sharing similar palette  
» see more

The Collected Schizophrenias
© » KADIST

The Collected Schizophrenias With Esmé Weijun Wang and Corrine Fitzpatrick Co-organized with Triple Canopy “When the self has been swallowed by illness, isn’t it cruel to insist on a self that is not illness?” asks Esmé Weijun Wang in her essay Perdition Days ...

A Bigger Party Than Expected: Honouring Rex Shelley at SWF 2019
© » ARTS EQUATOR

A Bigger Party Than Expected: Honouring Rex Shelley at SWF 2019 | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles Tuckys Photography October 21, 2019 By Akanksha Raja (830 words, 4-minute read) “Almari” by Irfan Kasban responds to this line...

Beau Soleil #7
© » KADIST

Stephen Beal

2010

Beau Soleil #7 ’s title (translated as Beautiful Sun) gives a good sense of its effect...

A roundup of charity print sales in support of Gaza
© » 1854 PHOTOGRAPHY

A roundup of charity print sales in support of Gaza - 1854 Photography Subscribe latest Agenda Bookshelf Projects Industry Insights magazine Explore ANY ANSWERS FINE ART IN THE STUDIO PARENTHOOD ART & ACTIVISM FOR THE RECORD LANDSCAPE PICTURE THIS CREATIVE BRIEF GENDER & SEXUALITY MIXED MEDIA POWER & EMPOWERMENT DOCUMENTARY HOME & BELONGING ON LOCATION PORTRAITURE DECADE OF CHANGE HUMANITY & TECHNOLOGY OPINION THEN & NOW Explore Stories latest agenda bookshelf projects theme in focus industry insights magazine ANY ANSWERS FINE ART IN THE STUDIO PARENTHOOD ART & ACTIVISM FOR THE RECORD LANDSCAPE PICTURE THIS CREATIVE BRIEF GENDER & SEXUALITY MIXED MEDIA POWER & EMPOWERMENT DOCUMENTARY HOME & BELONGING ON LOCATION PORTRAITURE DECADE OF CHANGE HUMANITY & TECHNOLOGY OPINION THEN & NOW Mike Abrahams, Howrah Bridge, Kolkata Print sales allow photographers to show solidarity and keep Gaza’s humanitarian crisis in people’s minds while also encouraging donations to the relevant charities The photography community is doing what it can to assist an increasingly desperate humanitarian crisis in Gaza...

Other works by: » Firenze Lai  
» see more

Alignment
© » KADIST

Firenze Lai

2013

Central Station, Alignment, and Sumo are “situation portraits” that present whimsical characters within distorted and troubling worlds...

Argument
© » KADIST

Firenze Lai

2013

Central Station, Alignment, and Argument are “situation portraits” that present whimsical characters within distorted and troubling worlds...

The Cloud of Unknowing
© » KADIST

Ho Tzu Nyen

2011

The Cloud of Unknowing (2011) is titled after a 14th-century medieval treatise on faith, in which “the cloud of unknowing” that stands between the aspirant and God can only be evoked by the senses, rather than the rational mind...

Untitled (Grate I/II: Shan Mei Playground/ Grand Fortune Mansion)
© » KADIST

Adrian Wong

2012

Untitled (Grate I/II: Shan Mei Playground/ Grand Fortune Mansion) is part of a series drawn from architectural objects that mark the boundary of public and private spaces Wong encountered while strolling in Hong Kong...

Nightmare-Wallpaper (No.DCCC901-16#8): An-Angel-in-Conversation-with-a-Young-Lady
© » KADIST

Pak Sheung Chuen

2017

The series Nightmare Wallpapers represents a shift if Chuen’s practice, allowing the artist to immerse himself in an “artistic pilgrimage of self healing” following the failure of the 2014 Umbrella Movement...

Empire's Borders II-Passage
© » KADIST

Chen Chieh-Jen

2010

Empire’s Borders II – Passage and Empire’s Borders II – Workers are from the three-channel film installation Empire’s Borders II – Western Enterprise, Inc...

Related works found in the same semantic group  
» see more

A Portrait Revisited: 1986, 2006
© » LENS CULTURE

A Portrait Revisited: 1986, 2006 - Video interview with Roderick McNicol | LensCulture Video interview A Portrait Revisited: 1986, 2006 These diptych portraits of the same person, same pose, 20 years apart, evoke the magic that is at the heart of photography and portraiture—and a short, insightful video interview with the photographer reveals more about the process behind this powerful series...

US National Portrait Gallery unveils painting of Oprah Winfrey
© » THEARTNEWSPER

US National Portrait Gallery unveils painting of Oprah Winfrey Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Museums & Heritage news US National Portrait Gallery unveils painting of Oprah Winfrey The portrait, showing the influential media personality in a striking purple dress, was painted by Chicago artist Shawn Michael Warren Theo Belci 14 December 2023 Share Shawn Michael Warren's Oprah Winfrey (2023) Courtesy the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery (NPG) has unveiled a new portrait of media mogul Oprah Winfrey, painted by the Chicago artist Shawn Michael Warren...

How Does the Smithsonian Decide Who Gets Into the National Portrait Gallery?
© » OBSERVER

What’s the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery Selection Process? | Observer Shawn Michael Warren, Oprah Winfrey , (2023)...

The Oil Paintings of Reza Bahmani
© » HIGH FRUCTOSE

Reza Bahmani's oil paintings, with each's distinctive texture and scale, carry a distinct intimacy...