The Leith Gallery presents a very exciting exhibition by two of Scotland's younger masters, Frank To and Jacqueline Marr together with sculptor Tom Allan. The exhibition runs from 4th to 25th April.

Jacqueline Marr was born in Falkirk, Scotland in 1977. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree with Honours from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee University in 1999. She has exhibited extensively in galleries and at art fairs throughout the United Kingdom and Europe, including solo exhibitions at The Leith Gallery, Edinburgh, Art Exposure, Glasgow, and The Contemporary Fine Art Gallery, Eton

Awards include the 1999 RWA Bursary from the Royal West of England Academy, the John Kinross Scholarship from the Royal Scottish Academy, also in 1999, and The Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust Grant and Loan in 2000. Collections include Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, The University of Dundee; Perth Royal Infirmary; the Royal Scottish Academy Archives in Edinburgh, Halifax/Bank of Scotland and The Royal Bank of Scotland. Media coverage relating to her exhibitions has been broadcast on Scotland Today in 2002, Talking Scotland in 2004 and Grand Designs, Channel 4 in 2006.

Marr is fascinated by the human form, with or without angel wings. Not the most prolific of artists she prefers to concentrate on a small number of paintings and indulge her perfectionist nature. A failing, if one can call it that, which benefits her collectors.

Frank To, the Glasgow-based artist with an emerging reputation as a contemporary figurative painter was born in Falkirk in 1982, To graduated from the University of Huddersfield with a BA (Hons) Fine Art before going on to gain a Masters of Fine Art from Duncan of Jordanstone Art College where his tutor was Calum Colvin. In recent years he has exhibited alongside some of the greats of the international art scene, including Banksy, Jimmy Choo and Antony Gormley.

His work has featured in several national art fairs and shows in Bath, Harrogate, London, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow and in the collection of Dundee University. To will showcase what he believes to be the world’s first depiction of Machiavelli’s masterpiece The Prince at an exhibition in The Leith Gallery, Edinburgh next month from 4th to 25th April.

To has chosen to depict a selection of key scenes from the famous book and, in another first, feature text excerpts from The Prince translated into Auld Scots.

He said: “From all the Machiavelli scholars I have consulted, none has found any records of any other artist having depicted The Prince. I have always been fascinated by the Italian Renaissance – recent exhibitions have featured Dante’s Divine Comedy and anatomical studies inspired by the great Leonardo Da Vinci – and have been researching how power can be wielded to manipulate others.

The exhibition features paintings of children portrayed in a Machiavellian way because, as far as I’m concerned, children are the most Machiavellian little creatures imaginable! I’m exploring the dark concept of art, though disguised in an innocent, Machiavellian way.”

Tom Allan ARBS, PAI, a well established sculptor, was born in Kilmarnock, Tom studied at Glasgow University, and went on to teach in France, England, Germany and Scotland.

Producing sculpture since 1977, he attended classes in sculpture and life drawing at Glasgow School of Art, and worked with stone masons in Scotland and marble carvers in Carrara, Italy. Tom became a full-time sculptor in 1999. In 2004, he began teaching stone carving at Glasgow Sculpture Studios. He works mainly in stone and marble, has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout Britain, and frequently attends international sculpture symposia.

“For me stone sculpture is an expressive art form. I try to express emotion through the stone I am working with, like a painter using colour and form. There is an excitement in that, and the challenge is to bring modern techniques and idioms to this ancient art.”

His commissions include sculpture for Plane Castle, (2003-5); life-size statues in Carrara marble of St Peregrine, Carfin Pilgrimage Centre (2005) and of Pope John Paul II, St Francis Xavier’s Church (2006), and a Holocaust Memorial, Banja Bashta, Serbia (2008).

His public work in Glasgow includes Caring, Pollokshaws Medical Centre (2005); the Lord Kelvin Memorial, Glasgow Necropolis (2007), and stone work for projects by Castlemilk Environmental Trust (2007) and Penilee Public Art (2008).

Recently Tom has created sculptures for outdoor sculpture exhibitions in parks and gardens such as at Newby Hall in Yorkshire, Chichester Cathedral, Quenington in the Cotswolds, the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens in Romsey, Leicester University Botanical Gardens, Buckfast Abbey in Devon, and Showborough House in Gloucestershire.

A frequent prize winner, he is also an elected Professional Member of Visual Arts Scotland and Paisley Art Institute. He was elected an Associate of the Royal British Society of Sculptors in 2006, and awarded the Diploma of Paisley Art Institute in 2010. He is currently based at Glasgow Sculpture Studios, and for several weeks of the year works at a studio in Carrara, Italy. Tom’s sculptures are in collections in Britain, Europe, and the Americas.