On the Town: The hum of voices resonated as hundreds of artists gathered in the city this week for the opening of the 174th Royal Hibernian Academy annual exhibition in Dublin's Ely Place.
Everyone dressed up for the occasion with some painters wearing mulberry coloured gowns to denote their status as one of the 30 elected members, or the 10 associate members (ARHA), of the RHA.
"Tonight is a very big social occasion. It's like the RDS (Horse Show). People come up from the country. Half of the work is sold out since Friday," said Arthur Gibney, architect, artist and president of the RHA. The first exhibition was held in 1830, he said. The tradition has carried on since. He remembers coming to the annual exhibition when he was a young man.
"It's a very good selling show and everybody likes to get into it. You can see the buzz," he said, noting that there were 17,000 visitors to the show last year.
Linda Quinlan, from Cork city, whose piece, Nuclear Plants, will be part of a larger group installation during Cork 2005 - European Capital of Culture , attended the opening.
Mick O'Dea RHA posed with poet Micheal O'Siadhail, for a photograph. O'Dea's portrait of O'Siadhail, which was commissioned by Cork's Crawford Gallery last year, is one of almost 500 works in the show.
James O'Halloran, of Adams Art Auctioneers, wandered among the artworks, checking out the quality. Some will go under the hammer at Adams's Irish Art Auction on Wednesday, May 26th.
Artist James English ARHA from Lough Shinny, Co Dublin, a newly elected associate member of the RHA, was there with his wife, Mary English. Artist Amy O'Riordan, from Parteen, Co Limerick, whose work, Backs to the Future, is a photograph of six stylish Traveller girls in Edward Street, Limerick, said the photograph was taken as part of a project confronting stereotypes. Others at the opening included Guggi, John Coyle RHA, Peter Collis RHA, John Turpin, Professor of History of Art at the RHA and Anita Shelbourne RHA.
The RHA Annual Exhibition continues until Saturday, May 22nd