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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.

Finding Shelter is, in the artist's words, literally about finding shelter, and finding home. It is on view August 22, 2026 – September 12, 2026.

Please join us for the opening reception on Saturday, August 22, 2026 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. Calvin Lai will be in attendance.

They say it’s a jungle out there, that a city can swallow you whole. They also say it’s where dreams can come true and fortune can be found. Cities have always been a mixed place, and I’ve lived in them most of my life. I can’t count how many times I’ve been swallowed up by its hard edges. Probably just as many times as I’ve walked down the streets like a king. It’s safe to say for me, and for many people, living in a city is full of a variety of emotions and experiences. “Finding Shelter,” is a new series that examines the dual nature within cities. It is a collection of paintings where I explore the dirty and gritty streets in order to find hidden gems. Sometimes it’s on a corner, sometimes it’s under a bridge, sometimes it’s facing traffic while waiting for the bus. This new body of work is inspired by the tension that lies between utopia and dystopia. It is literally about finding shelter, and finding home.

Calvin Lai (b. 1972) grew up in the Los Angeles area and now lives and works in San Francisco. Drawing was his first love as a child, and making a picture look lifelike became an early goal. That fascination with value, perspective, and composition carried him through a Bachelor’s degree in drawing and printmaking at San Francisco State University. In 2008 he enrolled at the Academy of Art in San Francisco to study illustration, started painting instead, and has worked as a full-time oil painter ever since.

Lai’s work is rooted in realism but wanders into abstract and impressionistic territory. He often breaks the edges of a picture with expressive brushwork and thin, diluted layers of pigment, creating a tension that keeps the viewer’s eye moving. Figures and portraits have long been the anchor of his practice, and in recent years his subjects have widened to include cityscapes, landscapes, and still lifes. Across all of it, he chases a single balance: rendering the world as precisely as he can while learning to loosen up and let the paint move.

Lai also teaches, sharing his approach to seeing in shapes, colors, and values with students in person and online, including at the California College of the Arts. Away from the easel he is a musician who plays clarinet, and he shares his studio life with a cat named Jojo.