Casey Tan is a Singaporean artist whose work centres on visual metaphor and narrative. Tan graduated with a Diploma in Fine Art from NAFA in 2016, where he was a recipient of the Ngee Ann Kongsi Scholarship. In 2019, he was named UOB Most Promising Artist of the Year for his work The Water Is Wide. In 2026, Tan took part in the UOB–NAFA artist-in-residence programme at NAFA Studios @ Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris and created a series of works that documented his experiences there.
First Snow is an outcome of the residency programme from 5 January to 26 February 2026. This study sketch reflects his ongoing practice of daily observation, capturing his impressions of the city as a stranger to its rhythms. Adopting a more gestural style, a departure from his usual precise, carefully constructed approach, Tan reveals the hidden sentiments beneath the surface of the everyday.
