Jai focuses on the arrangement of herbs and leaves made through the confident execution of lines that project a feeling of immediacy. A continuation of his still life series, the work explores the elements of still life featuring local vegetables from the countryside. The artist adopted a bold palette of vivid colours consisting of green, orange and yellow, enhanced with the play of shadows that create depth.
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.