I am delighted to be featured in Christ Church’s review:

For M. Freddy, the response to AI took the form of a personal and reflective work combining text and drawing. ‘I responded to AI with a personal letter and a drawing of the wildflowers my Airedale terrier discovered,’ he explained. The work formed part of Correspondence Club by M. Freddy, a subscription-based series inspired in part by their time as a Global Diplomacy Fellow at the United Nations.

About the artwork

Correspondence Club by M. Freddy: Responding to AI (2026) is an interactive artwork created specifically for the exhibition titled “Responding to AI”. Participants are invited to take the correspondence card out of the envelope, read it, and age it — feel free to get your fingerprints on it, leave coffee stains, smudge the drawing … Freddy will scan the piece again after the exhibition, which will add to the story of the artwork. The front of the card features a drawing of flowers with a stamp from the series that reads “M. F. R. Correspondence Club”. The back of the card includes a note: “My Airedale terrier Little Freddy loves to stop and smell the flowers. He picked these flowers for you while we were walking through a garden. I hope you like them. – M. Freddy”.

This artwork came about serendipitously. His on-going series Correspondence Club by M. Freddy is a subscription-based artwork where collectors receive a correspondence card each quarter. Each card features a handwritten letter and fresh flowers from his walks, interweaving nature into collectors’ everyday lives. The series was inspired by his time at the UN, where he underwent Core Diplomatic Training. One of the particularly memorable moments is the show-stopping red envelope from Carnegie Hall — Freddy’s invitation to the UN diplomats’ year-end event. The series shares this sense of occasion.

This series is available by commission

https://studio.mfreddy.com/correspondence-club

About M. Freddy

M. Freddy is a contemporary artist who explores the role of culture in socioeconomic change. He paints, photographs, and writes about subcultures — artists, musicians, chefs, and most recently, urban wildlife. His work captures their quiet brilliance, where alternative logics and visual vocabularies show fragments of a future underway. Fascinated by the way cultural objects gain significance, M. Freddy often experiments with how art is seen, acquired, and shared.

The artist alias of Marvin Cheung, M. Freddy is a former student of James Romberger, an artist in the East Village canon alongside Basquiat, Wojnarowicz, and McGinley. His work was recently featured by Lomography. He has given talks at prestigious organizations including MIT and the United Nations. He holds a BFA from the Parsons School of Design in New York, and an MA from Johns Hopkins SAIS. He was also a Departmental Visiting Student at the University of Oxford.

https://Studio.MFreddy.com

Thank you to Emma Heagney at Cherwell for the kind words:

While the exhibition was student-run and featured the art of several postgraduates, it was nonetheless star-studded. M. Freddy, a Parsons School of Design graduate and featured speaker at MIT and the United Nations, explored the idea of art as a relationship through the concept of an envelope. Viewers were encouraged to open the letter, read its contents slowly, and reflect on how the fingerprints and subtle creases on the paper could not be recreated by AI.

About the artwork

Correspondence Club by M. Freddy: Responding to AI (2026) is an interactive artwork created specifically for the exhibition titled “Responding to AI”. Participants are invited to take the correspondence card out of the envelope, read it, and age it — feel free to get your fingerprints on it, leave coffee stains, smudge the drawing … Freddy will scan the piece again after the exhibition, which will add to the story of the artwork. The front of the card features a drawing of flowers with a stamp from the series that reads “M. F. R. Correspondence Club”. The back of the card includes a note: “My Airedale terrier Little Freddy loves to stop and smell the flowers. He picked these flowers for you while we were walking through a garden. I hope you like them. – M. Freddy”.

This artwork came about serendipitously. His on-going series Correspondence Club by M. Freddy is a subscription-based artwork where collectors receive a correspondence card each quarter. Each card features a handwritten letter and fresh flowers from his walks, interweaving nature into collectors’ everyday lives. The series was inspired by his time at the UN, where he underwent Core Diplomatic Training. One of the particularly memorable moments is the show-stopping red envelope from Carnegie Hall — Freddy’s invitation to the UN diplomats’ year-end event. The series shares this sense of occasion.

This series is available by commission

https://studio.mfreddy.com/correspondence-club

About M. Freddy

M. Freddy is a contemporary artist who explores the role of culture in socioeconomic change. He paints, photographs, and writes about subcultures — artists, musicians, chefs, and most recently, urban wildlife. His work captures their quiet brilliance, where alternative logics and visual vocabularies show fragments of a future underway. Fascinated by the way cultural objects gain significance, M. Freddy often experiments with how art is seen, acquired, and shared.

The artist alias of Marvin Cheung, M. Freddy is a former student of James Romberger, an artist in the East Village canon alongside Basquiat, Wojnarowicz, and McGinley. His work was recently featured by Lomography. He has given talks at prestigious organizations including MIT and the United Nations. He holds a BFA from the Parsons School of Design in New York, and an MA from Johns Hopkins SAIS. He was also a Departmental Visiting Student at the University of Oxford.

https://Studio.MFreddy.com

This event is a relaxed opportunity to meet the artists. If you would like a Polaroid portrait taken while you are at the exhibit, Freddy is curating photographs and messages into a guestbook on-site. Join the process and be part of the artwork! Freddy can only accommodate a limited number during the event, so please arrive early. Digital scans will be shared after.

Part of the “Responding to AI” Exhibition at Christ Church, University of Oxford curated by Aniq Shamsi and Alice King.

Please register for this event on Eventbrite: https://freddy-kian-2026.eventbrite.com/ Be sure to register for the main event as well to gain access to the exhibition space: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/responding-to-ai-an-art-exhibition-tickets-1981793108536

I received a message last week that my profile on Lomography, or as the team calls it LomoHome, will be featured as the LomoHome of the Day on the 11th of December — somehow the team found my profile from over 1 million Lomographers.

There was not much additional information in the message and I did not know which polaroid they picked.

It did put a smile on my face this morning when I woke up to see a polaroid of Little Freddy.

Of course it’s Little Freddy. It’s always you 🫶🏻

Book a polaroid photoshoot

M. Freddy’s path to the arts has been thrilling and full of surprises. During his undergraduate studies at the Parsons School of Design in New York, he photographed fashion week, and made a career in user experience. He then pivoted towards the field of sustainable development. With further studies at Johns Hopkins and the University of Oxford, he has since become a Fellow as well as an Expert at the United Nations. After a whirlwind book tour from MIT to board networks for 5 Ideas from Global Diplomacy (2024), he moved to London where the warm creative community drew him back to the arts. His walks with Little Freddy, his Airedale Terrier puppy inspired his series of non-toxic chalk pastel artworks “Urban Wildlife” (2025) and “The Instant Film Project” (2025).

“Correspondence Club by M. Freddy” (2025) is an extension of his fascination with analog processes and nature in our fast paced world. Each correspondence card on classic stationary features a handwritten letter and fresh flowers from his walks, drawn with archival ballpoint pens.

“My dog Little Freddy loves to stop and smell the flowers. I came to appreciate wild flowers along the way too.”

Sustainable development continues to be a theme throughout his work. As a way of connecting nature to collector’s personal events and milestones,“C.C. by M. Freddy” is a subscription-based artwork where collectors receive a correspondence card each quarter. Freddy developed a particular fondness for letters during his Core Diplomatic Training at the UN. The show-stopping red envelope from Carnegie Hall — Freddy’s invitation to the UN diplomats’ year-end event — remains vivid in his memory. “C.C. by M. Freddy” shares this sense of occasion.

At Parsons, Freddy studied with James Romberger, an East Village artist in the canon alongside Basquiat and Wojnarowicz. He remains a close friend of the Romberger-Van Cook family. The established outlines and signature loop-patterned shading in Freddy’s drawings, reflect the energetic marks characteristic of the East Village with a dash of uptown charisma.

As an Upper East Sider who enjoys the serendipity of Central Park and now Hyde Park, he appreciates the medium of correspondence cards — they once brought Basquiat to Warhol after all.

View the latest series

To acquire the piece (free FedEx delivery to select locations), visit: https://studio.mfreddy.com/available-artworks/p/squirrels

Excerpt from “Introducing The Instant Film Project”

There’s a certain magic to being a creative. You can feel blue, spikey, warm, golden, checkered… I draw the things I can’t fully express with words. Moments when I look at my dog and hope he’d live forever; moments when I have to drink on a Whatsapp call because I moved to London and my friends are still in New York; and moments when I appreciate the whimsy of something I saw in London.

My latest series, The Instant Film Project, documents my life during a period of profound technopolitical change. It tells my story through polaroids and drawings that extend their borders. A form of photo elicitation, I record my drawing process, talk about the composition unscripted, and the moments that inspired the piece. Sometimes I talk at length, other times I draw in silence. A charming interpretation of show-don’t-tell. Read more about

https://forcollectors.mfreddy.com/p/introducing-the-instant-film-project

About M. Freddy

M. Freddy is a contemporary artist and researcher. He draws, conducts instant film photoshoots, and edits Visible Mag. An influential voice, he has spoken at venues including MIT and the United Nations. He holds a B.F.A. from the Parsons School of Design, and an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University. He was also a Departmental Visiting Student at the University of Oxford, and a former student of James Romberger, an artist in the East Village canon alongside Basquiat, Wojnarowicz, and McGinley. He is a New Yorker currently living in London.

https://www.mfreddy.com/info

Materials

• Chalk Copenhagen chalk pastels: non-toxic, and lightfast, handmade with local chalk from the Stevns Cliffs in Denmark

• St Cuthberts Mill Somerset Enhanced Velvet: 255gsm, 100% cotton, acid-free, made with traditional cylinder moulds

• Spectrafix FinalFinal Fix Advanced Fixative: archival quality non-toxic formula inspired by Degas recipe

• Image giclée printed with archival quality Epson Ultrachrome K3 inks by Metro Imaging: Metro holds a royal warrant in the UK as a photographic printer and supplier

If you liked the video, feel free to subscribe or buy me a coffee!

Subscribe now

I moved from New York to London not too long ago. When my book tour for 5 Ideas from Global Diplomacy came to a close after presentations on sustainable development at MIT, the UN, and other institutions, I decided to spend more time in the arts. I was figuring out my life in a new city and found the creative community friendlier. I hold an M.A. from Johns Hopkins and I was a Departmental Visiting Student at the University of Oxford, but I completed my B.F.A. at the Parsons School of Design in New York. It was a full-circle moment for me. Of course, art was also never that far away for an Upper East Sider.

Art came back to me when I picked up a polaroid camera to photograph my Airedale terrier puppy, little Freddy. I was a fashion week photographer during my Parsons days. I have also photographed musicians, artists, chefs, and other creatives. But a polaroid photoshoot is a very different experience. At a time when we are flooded with Al images, polaroids pull us out of our routines. There is excitement as each image emerges from the hazy white background and you hold in your hand a physical one-of-one artefact. I wanted to experiment with the media further by drawing on them, and that was how The Instant Film Project began.

Drawing with chalk pastel is a colourful choice, and a sentimental one as well. At Parsons, I was a student of James Romberger, an artist in the East Village canon alongside Basquiat, Wonarowicz, and McGinley. I have been a close friend of the Romberger-Van Cook family since. I began co-directing the Center for Global Agenda (CGA) at Unbuilt Labs with Marguerite Van Cook in 2020. We have co-organized the 2022 and 2023 Future of Global Covernance Series Conference together, which included the arts workshop “Nature and Natural Objects as Actors in Everyday Lives”. Marguerite and I co-curate the 2025 Instant Film as Contemporary Art Monthly Series at the moment.

“Nature and Natural Objects as Actors in Everyday Lives” is a significant influence on my contemporary art practice. We discussed the importance of sustainable art materials, which led me on a wild journey to source non-toxic materials for my own health and my collectors’. I currently use non-toxic chalk pastels from Chalk Copenhagen and a non-toxic fixative from SpectraFix. We also discussed the importance of introducing thoughtful cultural practices to support longer term sustainable development initiatives. My book goes further and makes the case for culture as critical infrastructure. Cultural spaces enable people to contest norms’ interpretations and adapt — a way to break free from existing cycles.

My first chalk pastel series Urban Wildlife looks at nature in our in-between spaces. A somewhat irreverent extension of my on-going fascination with subcultures. To invite dialogue, each artwork is accompanied by custom prose. I continue this practice for all of the artworks I offer today. The series is also an homage to the urban decay that is characteristic of the East Village canon. Even though I don’t “attack the canvas” as some abstract expressionists do, I take a deep breath and draw. Chalk pastels get murky after a few layers, so you cannot rework it the way you can with acrylic or oil. There is a sense of Pollock’s “controlled accident” at play: I start with a concept and let the chalk determine the precise outcome. These bold, energetic marks hold the artwork together.

My second and current chalk pastel series The Instant Film Project feels more personal. Polaroids from my everyday life are scanned and giclée printed onto archival cotton paper, before I draw on them. Urban wildlife continues to be a recurring motif, but there is a stronger narrative element. I draw the things I cannot fully express with words. Moments when I look at my dog and hope he would live forever; moments when I have to drink on a Whatsapp call because I moved to London and my friends are still in New York; and moments when I appreciate the whimsy of something I saw in London. I share this moment with collectors via For Collectors (Substack) and Youtube. There, you can see the artwork’s development from thumbnail sketches to finished drawings. Do reach out and commission an artwork if you see something that speaks to you.

Thank you for supporting my work. Your presence here matters.

M. Freddy

M. Freddy

M. Freddy is a contemporary artist and researcher on systems change. Author of the critically acclaimed “5 Ideas from Global Diplomacy”, he has spoken at venues including MIT, Boards Impact Forum, and the United Nations. He currently co-directs the Center for Global Agenda (CGA) and directs the Venture Strategy Group (VSG) at Unbuilt Labs, serves as an Expert at UNESCO, chairs the Global Consortium for Systems Research (GCSR), and mentors at the Yale University Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking. A New Yorker in London, he draws, conducts instant film photoshoots, and edits Visible Mag as part of his contemporary art practice. He holds a B.F.A. from the Parsons School of Design, and an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University. He was also a Departmental Visiting Student at the University of Oxford.

https://Studio.MFreddy.com/

In this ASMR-like video, I talk about a surprisingly simple trick to make artworks look more put together (by taping the edges of the artwork), why I use non-toxic art materials, how I handle chalk pastels, and the different compositions as well as colours I experimented with, before creating the final artwork.

To acquire the piece (free FedEx delivery to select locations), visit: https://studio.mfreddy.com/available-artworks/p/stop-and-smell-the-flowers

Excerpt from “Introducing The Instant Film Project”

There’s a certain magic to being a creative. You can feel blue, spikey, warm, golden, checkered… I draw the things I can’t fully express with words. Moments when I look at my dog and hope he’d live forever; moments when I have to drink on a Whatsapp call because I moved to London and my friends are still in New York; and moments when I appreciate the whimsy of something I saw in London.

My latest series, The Instant Film Project, documents my life during a period of profound technopolitical change. It tells my story through polaroids and drawings that extend their borders. A form of photo elicitation, I record my drawing process, talk about the composition unscripted, and the moments that inspired the piece. Sometimes I talk at length, other times I draw in silence. A charming interpretation of show-don’t-tell. Read more about

https://forcollectors.mfreddy.com/p/introducing-the-instant-film-project

About M. Freddy

M. Freddy is a contemporary artist and researcher. He draws, conducts instant film photoshoots, and edits Visible Mag. An influential voice, he has spoken at venues including MIT and the United Nations. He holds a B.F.A. from the Parsons School of Design, and an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University. He was also a Departmental Visiting Student at the University of Oxford, and a former student of James Romberger, an artist in the East Village canon alongside Basquiat, Wojnarowicz, and McGinley. He is a New Yorker currently living in London.

https://www.mfreddy.com/info

Materials

• Chalk Copenhagen chalk pastels: non-toxic, and lightfast, handmade with local chalk from the Stevns Cliffs in Denmark

• St Cuthberts Mill Somerset Enhanced Velvet: 255gsm, 100% cotton, acid-free, made with traditional cylinder moulds

• Spectrafix FinalFinal Fix Advanced Fixative: archival quality non-toxic formula inspired by Degas recipe

• Image giclée printed with archival quality Epson Ultrachrome K3 inks by Metro Imaging: Metro holds a royal warrant in the UK as a photographic printer and supplier

If you liked the video, feel free to subscribe or buy me a coffee!

Subscribe now

There’s a certain magic to being a creative. You can feel blue, spikey, warm, golden, checkered… I draw the things I can’t fully express with words. Moments when I look at my dog and hope he’d live forever; moments when I have to drink on a Whatsapp call because I moved to London and my friends are still in New York; and moments when I appreciate the whimsy of something I saw in London.

My latest series, The Instant Film Project, documents my life during a period of profound technopolitical change. It tells my story through polaroids and drawings that extend their borders. A form of photo elicitation, I record my drawing process, talk about the composition unscripted, and the moments that inspired the piece. Sometimes I talk at length, other times I draw in silence. A charming interpretation of show-don’t-tell.

Chalk pastel is a practical, colourful choice, and a sentimental one as well. Back when I studied at the Parsons School of Design in New York, I was a student of James Romberger, a chalk pastel artist in the East Village canon alongside Basquiat, Wojnarowicz, and McGinley. I have been close friends of the Romberger-Van Cook family since. Chalk pastel reminds me of the New York art world, and my home in the Upper East Side.

I find the nature of chalk pastel lends itself to action painting — there’s not much room for error, no erasing, and not much re-working before the artwork gets murky. Even though I don’t “attack the canvas” as some abstract expressionists do, I take a deep breath and draw. There’s a sense of Pollock’s “controlled accident” at play: I start with a concept and let the chalk determine the precise outcome. These bold, energetic marks hold the artwork together.

With a background in tech and sustainable development, having served as a fellow and an expert at the United Nations, I always prioritize non-toxic art materials. I use non-toxic chalk pastels and fixative for my own health and the health of my collectors. Similar to my previous series Urban Wildlife, The Instant Film Project features animals and everyday objects around me. Each piece is accompanied by custom prose. Collectors offer the first sentence and I respond with a reflection shaped by the artwork, a story that invites dialogue.

The Instant Film Project is part of my broader body of work that explores the role of culture in socioeconomic change. My book 5 Ideas from Global Diplomacy advocates for the idea of culture as critical infrastructure i.e. spaces that enable individuals to contest norms’ interpretations and adopt new ones. It is my hope that this series will continue to create spaces for dialogue and change.

A warm thank you for your support. Your presence here matters.

M. Freddy

https://Studio.MFreddy.com