Abend Gallery is pleased to present Finding shelter, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Calvin Lai. The series looks at the dual nature of the city, a place that can swallow a person whole and, on another day, hand them the street like a king. Lai walks the gritty corners and underpasses in search of hidden gems, the small refuges found on a corner, under a bridge, or across from traffic while waiting for the bus.

Built on the tension between utopia and dystopia, these paintings hold both the hard edges of urban life and the quiet moments of shelter inside it. Lai's realism drifts into looser, more expressive passages, with marks that break from the subject and blur into the surrounding scene. The effect keeps the eye moving and gives the work a sense of motion and feeling.

Through this exploration of overlooked urban spaces, Lai draws attention to moments of refuge that might otherwise go unnoticed amid the scale and intensity of the city. The paintings move between recognizable streets and more atmospheric passages, allowing everyday places to take on a personal and almost dreamlike quality. The contrast between the built environment and the fleeting sense of comfort found within it becomes central to the series.

Finding shelter is, in the artist's words, literally about finding shelter, and finding home. The exhibition considers how a sense of belonging can emerge in unexpected places, suggesting that home is not always defined by a permanent structure, but can also be found in temporary moments of safety, familiarity, and connection within the urban landscape.