Freddie Davies

Freddie Davies is a British artist from London. He arrived in Kyoto in 2019 to study a Master's in oil painting at Kyoto University of the Arts, under the MEXT government scholarship program. Having graduated in 2022, he has remained in Kyoto to pursue his work as an artist - namely, depicting the atmosphere of night.

From the sodium-infused cityscapes of his childhood to the fireflies over the Kamo river, Davies finds respite in the shadows. Through liquid-heavy painting, he strives to pour that sense of tranquility into his work, with an aim to encourage introspection through atmosphere. Japanese art finds its way into his influences in various forms; the panoramic vistas of fusuma, the liberated washes of sumi-e, or the cracked surface texture of a misshapen dorodango.