Jai constantly breaks the formal and technical boundaries of both traditional and experimental media. His drawing contains several recognisable motifs from everyday life such as the buyung water container, fish trap, fishes, and local flora in rich burnished colours. The spatial depth is heightened by placing the objects observed from multiple angles, placed against an earthy coloured background. He treated the work as a personal visual diary exploring issues of memory, suggesting his recollections of traditional culture. Jai has a double Masters in Painting from the Slade School of Fine Art, London (1988) and the Pratt Institute, New York (1994) after his BFA at the Mara ITM in 1985. His first solos were abroad, Malaysia Hall in London (1987), and for drawing, New Gallery in New York (1994), before his home solo at ITM in 1996. Although it was his Lifeform solo at Taksu Kuala Lumpur in 1996 that saw a “repackaged” Jai, he was already making waves when he won the Major Award in the Young Contemporary Artist (BMS) competition in 1985 and followed this up with the Gold Award in the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank art competition in 1991. His other accolades include the 1st Prize in the Murray Hill drawing competition in New York in 1994 and the Rado Switzerland commission in 2005. Jai was awarded the coveted Anugerah Akademik Negara (National Academic Award) for the visual arts category in 2019.