Instagram story viewer> @arlinacai> Posts

Arlina Cai

@arlinacai

23.7K

followers

1387

following

𓏲 Artist in Brooklyn
✺ Painting from what is felt but not seen
𓍯 All inquiries [email protected]
𓏲 ‘Drifting Through Time’ @glass.rice

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Download All

Every painting is a stepping stone to something new. When I finish a piece, it doesn’t feel like an ending, but rather a gateway. taken in New York, New York by @arlinacai

3k

53

2 years ago

One year ago on April 1st, 2023, I left my stable corporate job to be an artist.

I had no idea what to expect when I decided to finally follow my heart.

It hasn’t been easy, but it was worth it. I look back now, and I feel so incredibly lucky and grateful for everything that has happened on this journey.

And I couldn’t have done it alone. I’m so touched by and thankful for everyone who has supported me along the way. Thank you to my friends, to all of the fellow artists I have met, to my collectors, to those who encouraged me to keep going even when I was unsure and doubted myself, thank you.

To anyone who is at a crossroad, I’m curious, what is your heart telling you to do?

📸 Photo 1 credit to the talented @tombo.97 taken in Brooklyn, New York by @arlinacai

14k

91

3 years ago

‘Morning’ by @arlinacai on view now in ‘Drifting Through Time’ ✨

The paintings in this series began for Cai with a recent trip to the desert on the West Coast, where hours of flat, hot land with no end in sight let her mind settle and her thoughts come into focus. Living in New York, she’d forgotten what unstructured time felt like — an afternoon with nothing to do, an hour spent sitting still without guilt. The desert gave her back a sense of time as wide open and unhurried, spacious enough to notice what she’d normally move past too fast to see. Within that spaciousness, she found a soft landing for these works: a bloom of pink and pale green-gold barely holding its shape against raw, cream-colored canvas; a faint circular line becoming the only thing that gives way into a face, or a bud, or neither. Central to her practice is thinning pigment almost to water, directing it with movement that feels intuitive to her body, and then allowing it to settle. Each gesture is followed by a period of waiting, giving the pigment time to move and gather on its own before she decides what comes next. By giving the paint permission to spread at its own pace, Cai treats time as one of her materials.

DM or email info@glassrice.com for inquiries or to request the digital catalog.

———

‘Morning’ (2026)
Acrylic on raw canvas
40 x 30 in.
DM for price. taken in San Francisco, California by @arlinacai

3

3

8 days ago

I find it difficult to know where a body of work starts, and where it ends. I could keep painting forever, but it’s cooler now that fall has rolled in, and it feels like the change of seasons is telling me it’s time to share something again.

Do you hear the birds
Do you hear the trees
Do you hear the water

October 10th. taken in Brooklyn, New York by @arlinacai

861

9

10 days ago

On view now in ‘Drifting Through Time’ is this luminous painting by @arlinacai that is both tender and strange. One of five new paintings by the artist, each one begs to be experienced in person.

DM or email info@glassrice.com for inquiries or to request the digital catalog.

———

‘Lotus’ (2026)
Acrylic on raw canvas
20 x 16 in.
DM for price. taken in San Francisco, California by @arlinacai

3

1

23 days ago

Wanderer - six paintings that wander under the nighttime sky and get lost on an imaginary earth.

Email studio@arlinacai.com with inquiries.

A Place We Can Go - SOLD
Acrylic on canvas, 10”x8”

The View From Up Here
Acrylic on canvas, 10”x8”

Have You Found Home Yet?
Acrylic on canvas, 10”x8”

Cloudscape - SOLD
Acrylic on canvas, 10”x8”

Sea Of Forgotten Wishes
Acrylic on canvas, 10”x8”

Wishing Star
Acrylic on canvas, 10”x8” taken in Brooklyn, New York by @arlinacai

721

17

a month ago

Absolutely thrilled to announce the debut of @arlinacai at Glass Rice in a duo exhibition titled ‘Drifting Through Time’ opening next month September 12th!

Arlina Cai lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She paints to make visible what cannot be seen. Her process of layering upon layer of water diluted acrylics in instinct driven pours and gestures creates the softest of places for her viewers to land. Her paintings are less about depicting the world than about creating the conditions for the awareness.

“My practice has always had a call to quiet, an urge to slow down and rest, to create a place where I can remember. So lately, I am working on tending to the conditions for this place. I’m beginning to see now how time has always been one of my most important materials. These new paintings will not be an escape from life, but a place where time behaves differently.”

Save the date for ‘Drifting Through Time’. Arlina will be in attendance!

DM or email info@glassrice.com to receive the early collectors preview.

📸 @shantibasu taken in Brooklyn, New York by @arlinacai

3

14

a month ago

Dear diary,

It has been less hot in nyc lately, I hope fall is coming soon. The “in between” months are my favorite.

The start of the summer feels like a lifetime ago.

Two of the three green and orange paintings I’ve painted earlier this year have found homes! The second one just this week.

I’m a little surprised as these paintings started as a color experiment. Going through old photos, I’ve been reminded that I have a few more drawings in this color palette — maybe I should return and make one or two more?

(Photo of drawings in slide 2)

I’m not sure how these fit into my broader work at the moment. (Does everything need to fit?) They’re following a slightly different idea (color play), but maybe parallel.

This is the final painting that remains of the three.

The first to leave the studio was “Every word of a love poem”, then “Spoken softly”. This one pictured is “Looking inward”.

Every word of a love poem
Spoken softly
Looking inward

Maybe that’s how all love poems should be? taken in Brooklyn, New York by @arlinacai

884

22

a month ago

I’ve been here before 3
40” x 30”
Acrylic on canvas, framed in maple

Email studio@arlinacai.com with inquiries.

I’m always surprised to see which paintings resonate. This is one of my favorite pieces from my latest body of work, but very few people have noticed her.

Since the start of the year, I’ve been exploring the idea of a woman as the earth and how our bodies innately hold wisdom. I’ve become almost obsessed with creating these horizons that feel almost tangible.

I don’t know why but the backs of my eyelids are filled with these fantastic worlds and visions of shifting energy. I think perhaps channeling them into these more physical, tangible worlds on canvas has given me a greater feeling of grounding.

What do you see? taken in Brooklyn, New York by @arlinacai

827

10

2 months ago

A series of green paintings 𓏲

studio@arlinacai.com for inquiries

SOLD Watching time slow and expand 3
Acrylic on canvas, 36x50 in.

Watching time slow and expand 2
Acrylic on canvas, 36x50 in.

studio@arlinacai.com for inquiries

Studies in depth
Acrylic on canvas, 30x24 in.

studio@arlinacai.com for inquiries

Looking inward
Acrylic on canvas, 30x40 in.

studio@arlinacai.com for inquiries

Spoken softly
Acrylic on canvas, 30x40 in.

studio@arlinacai.com for inquiries

And here I am, wearing green, on the way to a jazz show on a Friday night. Said jazz show venue can be seen in the background. We got French fries for the table. I made up stories to go along with the music. It was really lovely. taken in New York, New York by @arlinacai

1k

21

2 months ago

The studio over the past few days / weeks / maybe months.

Time is going by so fast. It almost feels like the only thing I can do to slow it down is to get away.

I’m so lucky to be spending some time on the west coast, and I can’t help but wonder what paintings will come out of it when I’m back in New York. That’s something for me to discover later. I need to pull myself out of the future and back into my body.

𓏲 In my journal lately: what have I truly been devoted to? What does that devotion look like?

𓏲 Something I read recently that moved me: The Swan by Mary Oliver

𓏲 A YouTube video I can’t stop thinking about: I can’t remember the title exactly, but it was about the “death of the gods” and the bicameral mind/consciousness. I need to find it again. by @arlinacai

977

10

3 months ago

Hannah Traore Gallery is pleased to present Dreamkeeper Tarot Reading, an interactive experience with Arlina Cai. Join us Saturday, May 23rd from 2–6 PM.

Cai has long approached painting as a living dialogue, one in which each work carries its own presence, voice, and wisdom. For this event, she has taken that process one step further, channeling additional messages for each painting to reveal in the exhibition. Attendees are invited to arrive with a question, allow a painting to call to them, and hear what it has to say. Readings will be on a first come, first served basis.

Part ritual, part encounter, Arlina’s Tarot Reading invites viewers into an intimate relationship with intuition and the unseen.

Arlina Cai, The Night Is Quiet, Soft, And Glowing, 2026 by @arlinacai

3

3

5 months ago