Gunpowder art earns exhibition honour for Huddersfield alumnus

Huddersfield art alumnus Frank To is set to display his unique talent with a drawing based upon gunpowder at a prestigious exhibition in London next month.

The Scottish artist and activist’s new work Nectar Harvester will be on display at the Society of Graphic Fine Art’s annual exhibition in London’s Mall Galleries from 17 to 21 May, just a few weeks after he sold all his work at the Royal Society of British Artists exhibition in the same venue.

Nectar Harvester is a coloured drawing that harnesses Frank’s unique gunpowder drawing technique, which is garnering him international recognition as a leading contemporary art figure amongst art critics and high-profile collectors alike, including actor Sir Patrick Stewart and New York based Michel Witmer, who hangs Frank’s paintings alongside those of Picasso, Dine and Warhol.

Frank graduated from Huddersfield with a BA (Hons) Fine Art Painting and Drawing in 2004 and is now Contemporary Art Practice Lecturer at Inverness College UHI (University of the Highlands and Islands).

“To be honest, the new work is a direct reflection of where my mindset and career is at,” he declares. “If you think about it, two years ago we just entered a global lockdown due to the pandemic. Now whilst most artists would buckle down for the storm, I was in my flat, experimenting relentlessly new methods and techniques. This of course developed into the work I’m currently doing.”

Frank is no stranger to combining art with social activism to create something from unlikely but meaningful resources. In 2021 he exhibited Imagine at the Society of Graphic Fine Art, which was drawn with powdered Humanium Metal, an alloy made from ground-down illegal guns and other weapons.  

“I am very honoured to be accepted in this year’s Society of Graphic Fine Art annual exhibition. I will be showing next to contemporaries and peers who I strongly admire. Furthermore, I am humbled to be given an opportunity to show again this year in the Mall Galleries at the Royal Pall-Mall in central London in less than six months. It’s quite a rare thing as few Scottish artists achieve this in less than a year.”