Raina Kim Li, 金麗, is the artist behind Rei. Born in Singapore, Raina was trained in and practised architecture until 2014, when she decided to pursue her lifelong dream of being an artist. Having lived in New York, Santiago, Tokyo, and Silicon Valley before settling back home, her art has evolved over the years; having previously focused on the expression of self, she now casts the eye inwards to the workings of the heart, mind, and spirit.  

Fascinated by the materiality of medium and colour, Raina works with oils and acrylic as well as various materials such as pastels and pigment powder. She seeks the ever-elusive balance of richness and happiness in her pieces and constantly challenges her artistic capabilities by exploring different tools and textures.  

One constant across her works is her practice of rumination while in the act of painting. Her works are often done while reciting verses from the Bible, poems and literature that feed into an existential narrative, resulting in an abstract artwork that visualises a mood or landscape of the mind.  

Alongside her work as an artist, Raina is the founder and entrepreneur behind Gentle Beast Art Club, a creative platform used as a studio, event venue and exhibition space. Using her studio as an art charity stronghold, Raina has most recently committed to helping Tekanpur, a village in Nepal that was severely affected by the 2015 earthquake. After two exhibitions, she and a team of international professionals had successfully managed to rebuild the only school serving the village.  

Raina’s artworks have also been featured in a Singapore-based design and architecture magazine, D+A, in 2016, and she has exhibited in several group exhibitions, such as “Double Lives: The Works of Hyphenated Artists”, “100 Ways Home”, “100 Ways Home II”, “Artists’ Night Out”, “A Touch of Spring” and “Eastside Open Studios”.