The Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts has held an annual exhibition, displaying hundreds of artworks, every year, bar four since 1826.
Traditionally a summer show, for collectors new and seasoned it offers the largest selection of Irish art to be found in one place for sale, on view for free and open to the public for ten weeks. With artworks ranging from €65 to €60,000 this year, it really is a show for every pocket. Last year's exhibition saw more than €550,000 of art sold.
Every year without fail, the exhibition's best value works are snapped up first. Here’s our critic’s selection of ten sculptures you might wish you’d been quick, or cash-rich, enough to buy for yourself, along with a few suggestions for other works to keep an eye on.
Buyers looking for art for their home sometimes dismiss sculpture as an option because it’s not always as easy to display as an artwork you might hang on your wall, but this year’s show has more than a few works that might change your mind…
1. Róisín de Buitlear, Sinking Island €4,000
One of the most covetable items in this year’s show, de Buitlear’s sculpture draws you in with enticing allure of an oversized glucose mint before hitting you with the real impact of its call to action on climate change, sculpted from solid glass.
2. Eileen MacDonagh RHA, Pillow, €1,400
There is something both cold and inviting about this small limestone pillow carved by one of Ireland’s most exciting and significant sculptors in stone.
3. Niamh O’Malley ARHA, Vertical Yellow 2023, €3,000
O’Malley was Ireland’s representative at the 2022 Venice Biennale. Her work in wood, glass, metal, stone and video has an understated, nuanced beauty.
4. Michael Quane RHA, Horse with Figure II, €10,400
Quane’s sculptures are a staple at the annual. This one carved in limestone draws on one of his favourite motifs: the relationship between horse and man.
5. Vicki Sutherland, Memento Mori Flora, €500
New Zealand-born Sutherland’s beautiful porcelain pile combines natural forms of ferns and Physalis, or "Chinese lantern", with the idea of artwork as a site for memorial.
6. John Behan RHA, Welded Bull, €30,000
A familiar presence at the annual show since his election as an associate in 1977, Behan’s bronze bulls are immediately recognisable. This is a classic, his pose perky and arresting.
7. Jane Murtagh, Letter from Tangier, €1,450
A wall-hung concertina-style fold in etched, patinated and gilded copper, this piece was inspired by a family letter written in 1860.
8. Sarah Farrelly, Octopus, €1,250
Farrelly hand-builds her ceramic sculptures before hand-painting them with detailed patterning. This octopus is part of an ongoing series that includes sheep, owls and more.
9. Yvonne Farrell RHA, St Brigid’s Cross No. 1 2023, €475
A multi-award-winning architect and one half of Grafton Architects, both of Farrell’s Brigid Cross works, which consist of paper-folded crosses displayed in a Perspex box sold quickly at this year’s show.
10. Stephen Murphy, Newborn (The hardest day of your short life yet), €65
This piece is a Jesmonite sculpture in an edition of 1000, so there are plenty still available for multiples collectors. Shortlisted for the RSCI Art Award at this year’s RHA Annual, it’s on show at the Royal Academy this year too, having also been selected through the open submission process for the London show.
Four more sculptures, by RHA members, still available for those with deep pockets to take home:
Dorothy Cross RHA, Udder Chair (1993), €44,250
Imogen Stuart RHA, A Greeting Hand, €14,000
Eilis O’Connell RHA, Orange 2021, €10,800
Carolyn Mulholland RHA, The Flight of the House Fly Around Food, €3,500.
The 193rd RHA Annual is open daily at 15 Ely Place Dublin until 30th July 2023. Admission free. Works can also be viewed and purchased here.
