Cynthia Fan was born in Durban in 1991 and grew up on the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal. She is a fine artist, writer and plant biologist whose work encompasses research, curation and sculpture in the medium of plant arrangement.

She has a PhD in Plant Molecular Biology from the University of Edinburgh and the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, where her research focused on begonias. She is a contributing writer to Plant magazine, a former artist-in-residence at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and has collaborated with brands and institutions as various as TOAST, Wright + Doyle, The Photographers’ Gallery, and the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP).

Her sculpture work has been exhibited internationally. She lives in London.