This was the show to be seen at this week: Tom Climent showing his huge, rich canvases at the Temple Bar Gallery on Wednesday night. The paintings would have pulled in the crowds by themselves but as the exhibition was critic Brian Fallon's own choice, and as Tom's agent is Isobel Smith, a girl with more friends than she knows what to do with, the gallery was strictly standing room only.
Tom seemed a little fazed by all the attention and admitted he will be quite happy to escape back down to Cork when all the hoo-ha is done. In the autumn he is heading over to Rome to check out the art there for the first time although he is more than familiar with the work of the Spanish masters, who make a big impression on his work. His father is Spanish and much of his childhood has been spent tilting back and forth between there and Ireland.
There was an interesting clutch of other artists present including Mark Clare, who's exhibiting at the moment in the Jo Rain Gallery; Brian McCar- thy, another of Isobel Smith's artists; Rachel Ballagh, the next show-opener at TBG; and the ever-colourful David MacDermott and Peter MacGough whose exhibition has just finished in the gallery. David, dressed as usual in knickerbockers and vest, was in exuberant spirits having heard that the Conspiracy Paintings show will be going to Paris - and their newspaper style invite, winner of my "most novel invite of the year" award, will be translated into French.
Isobel's friends comprised a fine vociferous bunch: designer Lainey Keogh was there along with her sister Irene Keogh, greatly admiring Tom's rich colour palette; actor Patrick Bergin popped along just in time for the speeches; while Pasta Fresca's Mai Frisby, and Caroline Desmond missed them completely after being held up in the pre-match traffic. RTE's Gerry Ryan came along with his wife Morah and chatted enthusiastically about an upcoming trip to South Africa; no holiday this, the whole Gerry Ryan Show team is heading south and will be recording four programmes there this autumn.
Delia Roche-Kelly, the doyenne of Delia's nightclub in New York, was there as the proud owner of some of Climent's work, and writer Olaf Tyrannsen and model Sonia Reynolds also came along. Actor Moya Farrelly arrived with fellow actor Dominic Wright; Moya has just finished playing the lead role in This Is My Father, the film dominated by the Quinn clan - Aidan and Marian the actors, Declan the cinematographer and Paul the writer and director. She had a great time on set and said she'd "almost do it all again for nothing".