John Lee Joo For (b. 1929, Penang – d. 2017, Melbourne, Australia) has been dubbed “the symbolic painter” by fellow artist and teaching colleague Syed Ahmad Jamal. He received a generous government scholarship in his youth that allowed him to study at three different English universities: the Brighton College of Art, the Camberwell School of Art, and the Royal College of Art. In 1973, he migrated with his family to Melbourne, Australia. Mostly known for his symbolic paintings, he was also a skilled sculptor and print-maker. Horses are a recurrent motif in his work because of their significance in Chinese symbolism (his father was a Chinese calligrapher). Aside from art, he was also an accomplished playwright, having written many stage plays and musicals, often with evangelical themes.