The Art Supermarket is an innovation which arrives in Dublin from Barcelona via Harvey Nichols in Knights bridge, a provenance which encourages caution. The concept involves displaying a large number of original artworks, by 50 artists including Stephen Lawlor, Jordi Pratt, Paul Reagan, Gerard Davis, Qu Leilei, Chris Salmon and Cecile Colombo in a fashion that makes them easy to approach. So, for each artist represented, one framed image is mounted above a shiny wire basket containing works by the same hand. Drawn in by the featured painting, visitors are invited to browse through the images as a shopper might a rack of CDs. For the Irish opening of the supermarket, a number of "locals" have been selected for presentation alongside international artists. Styles vary hugely, but there is an anodyne quality to all but a small number of images. They are a surprisingly mute bunch, seldom anything less than competent, but seldom more.
They are, for the large part, interchangeable one with the other, unless of course you've bought a blue one for the blue room.
How wholeheartedly the artists have entered into the endeavour is hard to tell. Many must produce these sorts of pictures - quirky abstracts, laboured faux bistro montages, friendly but vapid cartoons - in complete sincerity. There is, however, at least one artist featured here whose contributions are far enough away from their usual work to suggest a joke. It is an odd reflection on the collection of work here that this apparent prank, even though it features some of the least convincing painting at the Art Supermarket, also provides its liveliest moment.
Until December 31st.
