Lilly Mia Black
Freda Tan
Savannah Garvin
curated by Cassandra Lui, Katarina Holbrough, Xiaobang Li
Remnants
Remnants is the culmination of a month-long residency with The Pond Collective, bringing together Lilly Mia Black, Freda Tan, and Savannah Garvin. From August 24 to September 20, the three artists shared a studio space while developing new work in response to the residency’s theme of memory, imagined futures, and what remains. The exhibition offers a look at the work that emerged from this shared period of making and reflection.
The things we leave behind can continue to hold meaning long after we are gone. Remnants brings together the work of Lilly Mia Black, Freda Tan, and Savannah Garvin, who each consider how memory and knowledge can exist beyond ideas of self. Their works look at what is carried forward: imagined futures, familiar structures, and unseen connections.
Freda Tan
@paint_of_views
fredatanart@gmail.com
A playground is built in anticipation of events that have not yet happened. It waits for bodies, gestures, accidents, and memories. Yet it also carries the residue of what has already occurred: worn surfaces, scratches, broken structures, altered landscapes. Seen from both directions, it becomes an archaeological site, anticipating and remembering at once.
My paintings imagine how these structures might be understood by metal, soil, plants, microorganisms, or machines. Through soft brushwork and gestural line, forms breathe into one another, and the human dissolves into the wider field of matter. In this shift of perspective, I imagine a future in which people are no longer the sole authors of meaning.
Artist Bio
Freda Tan is a Toronto-based painter working in oil. Her paintings capture charged moments of elemental transition, both organic and abstracted, inviting viewers to sense the vibrating energy of matter in motion and the openness of possibility within every moment of becoming. She holds an Honours BSc from the University of Toronto and an Honours BFA from OCAD University.
Savannah Garvin
@savannahrgarvin
studio.savannahgarvin@gmail.com
Land and what survives over time more than human memory - how plants communicate and remember symbiotic partnership and ecosystem resilience.
The work I have created over the course of the residency with The Pond Collective explores mycelium networks as a way of thinking about memory, connection and unseen symbiotic partnerships in our ecosystem. I am interested in fungi as a way of thinking beyond human-centred understanding of memory, connection and passing time. Another name for a hyphae network is “fungal threads” which felt fitting with my materials and techniques used. The work explores how knowledge is embedded in the land and will continue to have interconnected communication in a post-human world.
Artist Bio
Savannah Garvin is a Toronto-based artist working primarily in textiles. She completed her Bachelor of Design in the Material Art and Design program at OCAD University in 2025. Savannah is drawn to the tactile nature of fibre arts and the slow, reflective process of hand craft. Her recent work explores brushed mohair’s inherent material ability to obscure, abstract and blur.
Lilly Mia Black
@1.mblack
1.mblack.contact@gmail.com
Reflection of a Thousand Years is a narrative based around a previous piece of mine titled If They Knew How to Fly South.
I have imagined that, within this landscape, a thousand years has passed and many changes have occurred. The one factor that stays absolute within this world is the physical dome that I have painted before. This dome symbolizes the idea of being able to leave but not being able to enter. The idea that if those within knew they could leave they would. This giant being is the embodiment of years of reflection and it has all the answers...but it is impossible to breach the walls of the dome from the outside. Holding all this information and desperately wanting to help those inside has turned this being into what it is now.
Artist Bio
Lilly is a Scarborough based painter working primarily in topics relating to her
Scarborough upbringing. Her work addresses topics relating to unfortunate
familial/personal relationships/situations and how certain experiences alter an
individual's perception in adult life. Her work has been exhibited in Gallery 1065, Gallery
1313, The Toronto Outdoor Art Fair and more within the Toronto/Scarborough area.
