ARTIST IN HIS STUDIO By Gordon May, The Glaswegian 02/10/08

A NEW breed of Scottish artist with a devoted celebrity following will be showcasing his latest work at the W.A.S.P.S studio in Glasgow.

Glasgow based artist, Frank to will be featured in the highly anticipated event "W.A.S.P.S Open Studio Weekend" at the Workshop and Artists' Studio Provision Scotland building in Dennistoun, opening Saturday.

To will be opening his workshop to the public, displaying new work yet to be exhibited.

At 26, To is already winning an enviable reputation as a contemporary figurative painter, having establishing a loyal following, including a number of high profile buyers. Such a collector is Star Trek legend, Patrick Stewart. Additionally, To's work has been featured in the STV detective drama, Rebus.

A Masters graduate of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, To has also trained in Yorkshire.

In recent years he has exhibited alongside some of the greats of the international art scene.

His work has also featured in several galleries nationwide including the Fairfax Gallery, Tunbridge Wells (2005), Beaux Art Gallery, Bath (2006), Albemarle Gallery, London (2007) and Queens Gallery, Dundee (2008).

He is now represented in New York by Witmer Fine Art, that has in the past sold works by Monet, Picasso, Van Gogh and Andy Warhol. To is currently riding the crest of a wave with his work, and prices are soaring accordingly due to his popularity.

To draws inspiration from the Renaissance sculptor, Michelangelo could visualise the human form within a block of marble. To, similarly, teases out figures from the initially abstract images.

To said: "This event will provide me with the unique opportunity to show the public how I work. W.A.S.P.S Open Studios' opens on Saturday and Sunday at 77 Hanson Street.

FRANK TAKES THE HIGH ROAD FOR HIS ART by David Oliver, The Extra Newspaper, 11/09/08

A SOUTHSIDE artist will be featured in an exhibition next week in the Highlands.

Frank To (left), from Newton Mearns, will have his work displayed from September 19 in the Art and the Word show at the Kilmorack Gallery in Beauly, near Inverness.

Frank (26) has already exhibited alongside Tracy Emin, Damien Hirst and Peter Howson, and sold pieces to high- profile buyers including Star Trek legend Patrick Stewart, currently on stage in Hamlet in the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Frank's work has also been featured on screen in STV detective drama Rebus.

This latest show is of artists who have created work inspired by literature. But Frank says his main inspiration comes from Michelangelo.

He said: "This will provide me with the opportunity to show the public how I am inspired by literal text. I'm showing a more personal side in my new work."

For more information, please visit the official website of Frank To Fine Artist

BEAULY GALLERY LURES TOP GLASGOW ARTIST by Samantha Chetwynd,The Press & Journal Inverness 06/09/08

ARTIST INSPIRED BY MICHELANGELO

By Samantha Chetwynd

A GRADUATE from Dundee Art School who draws inspiration from Michelangelo will exhibit his work at an Inverness- shire gallery next week.

Frank To, 26, will have four paintings on display at the Art and the Word show at the Kilmorack Gallery, Beauly.

His work will be exhibited alongside several established Scottish artists who have created work inspired by literature.

Mr To, who is based in Glasgow, is already creating a reputation as a contemporary figurative painter, having established a loyal following that includes a number of high- profile buyers such as Star Trek legend Patrick Stewart.

His work has also been featured in television detective drama Rebus.

And in recent years his work has been exhibited alongside that of Tracy Emin and Damien Hirst.

He said: "This exhibition will provide me the opportunity to show the public how I am inspired by literal text.

"In a way, I'm showing a more personal side with the new work."

The exhibition opens on September 12.

ART SCHOOL ROUNDUP by Homes and Interiors Scotland Magazine May- June 2008 Issue 59

Duncan of Jordanstone

Dundee's Duncan of Jordanstone has become a hotbed for creative talent. Ranked as one of the top three art schools in the UK, its students are regularly winners of national competitions.

RECENT STARS Lucy McKenzie (Art Now at Tate Modern), Scott Myles (Tate Trennial 2006), Anna King, inaugural Jolomo Lloyds TSB Award Winner in 2007, Johanna Basford, winner of Elle Decoration Design Awards 2007, award winning sisters Kim and Lara Scouller, and Frank To.

For more information, please visit the official website of Frank To Fine Artist

TO BOLDLY GO....FOR A SHOWCASE

A New breed of Glasgow artist whose work is collected by Star Trek hero Patrick Stewart is to showcase his latest work at Glasgow Art Fair.

Newton Mearns- based Frank To is showing three new pieces of work following successful exhibitons in London and the United States.

The 26- year- old who paints at the WASPS Artists' Studios in Dennistoun is being promoted by the Mansfield Park Gallery.

Only Time, Rewrite and Titan are some of his most evocative works to date.

He said: "My work used to be more figurative, but my new work is more personal. People will be able to relate to what's in the paintings more."

Patrick Stewart (aka Captain Jean- Luc Picard) has so far bought five of the Scot's paintings.

Frank studied art at Huddersfield University and Duncan of Jordanstone College in Dundee, and previously showed work with Tunbridge Wells- based gallery, Fairfax.

He added: "The Art Fair shows on an international level that Scotland has a strong art reputation, with artists such as Peter Howson, Ken Currie and Jack Vettriano. It helps put Scotland on the map in the art world."

For more information, please visit the official website of Frank To Fine Artist

YOUNG PROFESSIONAL by Jan Patience The Herald 02/02/08

Frank To's work is fired by ambition says Jan Patience

Young artists are not what they used to be. Once upon a time, any self respecting artist in their twenties spent whole days down the pub, smoking furiously, drinking heavily and arguing over weighty issues such as whether or not art schools destroy art. These days, you are more likely to find them networking with London galleries or with agents in New York, putting together business plans and setting up a website in order to market and control their own work.

Who is to say which is the better path, but what is certain is that being a talented young artist in 2008 is a vastly different experience from being such a creature a generation ago.

Frank To is the only exhibiting artist at the Queen's Gallery's New Generations exhibition who hasn't got his own website. But the 25- year- old, from Newton Mearns south of Glasgow, does have a New York agent called Michel Witmer and a London gallery, Albermarle.

He is currently riding the crest of a wave with his work, and prices are soaring accordingly. This time last year, a reasonable sized To painting would have cost you £800. Today it would be £1700.

There is real drama in his work- a brooding mental energy that sucks you in and leaves you wondering what, why, where? He talks about how his hero Michelangelo considered marble for days on end before teasing out the figure within, and how it is his preferred method of working too.

He places himself into the work at every turn. One painting in the New Generations exhibition, Time after Time, shows two figures facing each other with a gap between them, He says "This came out of a personal experience I had of having feelings for someone which were never realised although there is a sense of ‘what if?'"

There is a multi- layered approach to Frank To's work. In the first place, he creates an abstract scene. He works quickly, layering the paint in sweeping gestures. He then drips turpentine on the surface to create a mottled textured layer and uses whatever he has to hand- a discarded neon light strip is a favourite- to work the surface into a state of readiness.

At that point, he steps back, and looks for the figure within. His figures are then drafted in with a rag soaked in turpentine.

The influence of masters, old and young is obvious. He studied under Calum Colvin at Duncan of Jordanstone in Dundee, where he gained an MA in 2005. "Calum instilled in me the need to be professional and the way he presented himself was a huge influence," To says.

With the professionalism comes ambition. "My goal is to be made a member of the Royal Academy by the time I'm 30," he smiles. "Turner was admitted by the time he was my age, so I won't be the youngest ever, but it is a real burning desire."

For more information please visit the official website of Frank To Fine Artist