Lai Foong Moi was born in 1931. Lai graduated from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 1953 and she is known as the first Malaysian-born female artist to have received a scholarship to study in France in 1954. 

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Many of her paintings captures the changing world and the regular people living in it. She depicts women, labourers, and cityscapes. 

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Lai became a lecturer herself and taught at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, where she became a lecturer to many of Singapore’s pioneering artists.