THE HERALD February 2nd 2008
YOUNG PROFESSIONAL
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."