ARTIST BIO

Frances Ferdinands

Born in Colombo Sri Lanka, Frances Ferdinands is an artist largely based in Toronto. As a young immigrant to Canada, raised in a traditional South Asian household, an awareness of these two very different cultures was a constant backdrop in her search for identity and place. Identity, ‘otherness’, cross-cultural differences and fertilization are themes found in her paintings alongside her love of colour, pattern and decoration.

Ferdinands holds degrees in Visual Arts, Education, and an A.R.C.T. (Piano). As a university student she was co-editor of ‘Eclectic Eve’ – a Collection of Fifty Interviews with Toronto Women Artists. (Coach House Press 1974). American historian/critic Lucy Lippard commended the book for its innovation. Ferdinands’ paintings are featured in two Artbooks: Rethinking Acrylic” and “Acrylic Innovation “(Northlight Books, 2008/2010), as well as several Art & Literary Magazines.

She was commissioned by the Royal Canadian Mint to design the 2017 Gold ‘Diwali’ coin and the 2019 Gold Multi-Cultural coin, celebrating “light and diversity.”

Ferdinands has exhibited her paintings in Solo and Group exhibitions for 4 decades in such art centres as London, New York, Paris, Bogota and Honolulu, as well as across the Continental USA and Canada. She is the recipient of many Artist Grants and her paintings are held in private, major Corporate, and Museum collections.

In 2015 and 2017 under the auspices of an Arts Council Grant she returned to her homeland to be mentored in traditional arts and crafts of temple mural painting, bobbin lace making, and mask making that are culturally at risk. Her intention was to study these old forms and revitalize them through re-interpretation within a contemporary context. This experience served to enrich Ferdinands’ understanding of her Sri Lankan heritage and her sense of place within it.

The experience also spawned new work including the “Atomizer” collection – a series of 10 works which the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) purchased.

In 2019 she traveled to Spain and Morocco to visit important Islamic sites and was awarded a Chalmers Grant to travel to London, England to study Islamic patterning. The knowledge gained found its way into more recent paintings and added another dimension visually and theoretically in exploring cultural differences, belief systems and cross-cultural fertilization.

In March 2020, Ferdinands had her first solo exhibition at the Noble Sage Art Gallery in London England. In 2020/21 she had a Solo Exhibition at the Art Gallery of Mississauga, and in May 2024, Ferdinands had a solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Northumberland, featuring a large installation of suspended embroidery hoops with related 2-D works, titled “The Covenant of Circles”.

View all artists

shop all artists

Please note: All artworks are subject to availability.

Click on item to view details.