Firenze Lai Ching Yin (Chinese: 黎清妍; born 1984) is an artist, an illustrator, an editorial designer and the co-founder of Hulahoop Gallery of Hong Kong.
[1] Her works frequently depict anonymous figures as subjects, and explore the issues of psychological landscapes, the mind and body, human relationships, collectiveness, and social experiences and space.
[2] Since 2005, a year before her graduation, Lai began illustrating for a psychology column in Ming Pao Weekly on a regular basis.
[7] While professional illustrators are often challenged to depict a wide array of subjects including those which they are not familiar with, she found the requirements of the column aligning with her personal interests.
[9] In 2007, she co-founded and operated the Hulahoop Gallery with Lulu Ngie (倪鷺露),[1] an artist and fellow graduate from Hong Kong Arts School majoring in painting in 2006.
A majority of her painted and drawn works portray anonymous figures intertwined with the surrounding settings which are sometimes identifiable, local spaces (e.g. the interior of a public bus, the walls inside an MTR station).
Although these works display local specificities, she emphasized the possibility of going beyond such geographical confines when viewing her pieces, which can essentially be depicting anywhere and even anyone.
She refers to her artworks as "figural works" in opposition to "portraitures", as the former term erases the particular identification of a protagonist, and underscores the universality and ambiguity of the subject.