Freda Tan

Freda Tan is an oil painter based in Toronto. In her paintings, she reimagines the traditional motifs of the five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water, as they manifest in daily life. She works with a soft handling of paint, and her brushwork allows forms to breathe into one another, letting light and gestural lines carry energy across the surface.

Freda holds an Honours Bachelor of Science degree from University of Toronto and an Honours Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at OCAD university.

“I use familiar images and the five elements as entryways to remind viewers that the elements are not abstract concepts but the very substrate of our sensory experience. Through layered transparency, directional gestural lines and shifting color, I seek to capture universal flux – the sentient state of everything which consists of energy waves.”