Earlier in the week Trinity Visual Arts Society (Vis Arts) gathered together a group of eager art enthusiasts for their Gallery Crawl as part of the Trinity Arts Festival. The hope was to introduce us to some of the less frequented galleries in Dublin and to give people an insight to the real contemporary work of today’s practising artists.
And by all means was it a success! Many of us had never heard of some of these tiny, but no less fantastic, little galleries (even some of the Vis Arts committee discovered new places). Dotted along the streets from Nassau St to Ely Place are some brilliant galleries you might never have even heard of, many of which we were luckily led to.
Gormleys, which is right across from Trinity on Frederick St, had on show not only the breathtaking impasto paintings of Irish artist Stephen Forbes, but also some huge names such as Andy Warhol, Banksy and Damien Hirst. Many also found the homely feel of the Oliver Sears gallery – half way down Molesworth St – to be a nice change from the clinical walls of fine art galleries or the bustling stacks of canvases that overflow in some commercial places. Here Donald Teskey’s vibrant yet sober studies of river banks were quite stunning. The works of some big names such as William Crozier and Justin Doherty were to be found in the Taylor Galleries, Kildare St.
Some thoughts were being shared by the amicable bunch as we went from place to place. Of course, none of us could help but be left speechless at how expensive some paintings are, but many of us were also surprised by just how many galleries Dublin has – all of them showing the best of new Irish talent. It often seemed like every other door had an exhibition of some sort behind it. Conversation eventually got onto how much art is displayed on Trinity’s own campus, which is probably enough for a tour all in itself. Vis Arts had done a tremendous job of organising the tour so that every gallery knew to expect us – there was always someone to answer any questions we had.
We ended up at one of Dublin’s best, the RHA. Here there were a number of shows but it was the Grayson Perry exhibition The Vanity of Small Differences that really blew everyone away with its technicolour tapestries depicting an almost hellish world of hedonism and consumption – all the more frightening for its apt, though comic, depictions.
We all seemed to agree that it was totally disturbing and yet so realistic, and on that note the tour came to its conclusion. It seems there’s enough art shows for a tour every week.
