This October sees the opening of Tom Allan's solo show of sculptures. The exhibition runs from from Saturday, 12th October to Saturday, 2nd November, 2013.

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.