When you think of an art gallery, what do you think of first? Sunday afternoons? Tons of gilt frames? Security guards checking you out? Buying postcard reproductions before you leave? Or, like an increasing number of the recently well-shod, do you think of a shop?
Because that's what commercial art galleries are, exclusive shops with expensive items for sale. At the very least, even if you don't have two euros to rub together, commercial galleries represent an opportunity to view new work by new masters, fresh off the easel, or old work by old masters, on the move from private collections.
Antoinette Murphy is the director of the discreetly-located Peppercanister Gallery in Herbert Street, which opened in October. The gallery is quite small and intimate, with low ceilings, and a couple of nooks off the main space. "People are fantastically interested in art, even if only a small percentage are buying," she says. She decided to open the gallery after working for Sothebys and the RHA, and a seven-year stint as the director of Jorgensen's Fine Art.
She has also had the opportunity to hone her eye through personal means. At one stage of the interview she mentions that when the Belltable Arts Centre opened in Limerick, she and her businessman husband, Patrick Murphy, lent 73 of their own paintings for its inaugural exhibition. "We've been collecting for over 30 years," she admits. Patrick Murphy has just taken over as chairman of the Arts Council from Prof Brian Farrell.
Her intention is to have shows every six weeks, alternating between group shows with established names, and solo shows with Irish-based artists who are relatively new on the scene, or have not shown for some time, such as the potter, Sonja Landweer.
The opening exhibition was a high-profile group show by long-established names such as Evie Hone, Tony O'Malley, Barrie Cooke, Patrick Collins, Nano Reid, Jimmy Dixon, and Camille Souter, and which sold well. The current show, a solo by Mark de Freyne, sold an impressive 26 of its 32 pieces by opening day.
So who is buying from her gallery? "There are some corporate buyers, but most of them are private individuals. The improvement in the economic climate definitely has a lot to do with it."
At the other end of the scale in terms of experience is Nicholas Gore-Grimes, 23, who opened the Cross Gallery on Francis Street in December. There are a few pieces of distressed antique furniture scattered around the three interconnecting rooms; the third of which is a very large space. "Opening a gallery is something I've always wanted to do at some stage," he says confidently. Gore-Grimes worked for a couple of years in Dublin's antique business, which he says provided him with a client list he is now drawing on.
His opening exhibition was a group show with John Moore, David Quinn, and Eoin Llewellyn, which sold "a fair amount". Gore-Grimes thinks that "paintings are still luxury items", but hopes the Cross will attract "young professionals who may not normally go to galleries, but who'd be interested in buying art. I'd hope that all artists would want to show their work here. I think a lot of the other galleries in Dublin show the same kind of stuff from year to year." He reckons it'll take about 18 months to establish the gallery, and then he'll assess its future potential.
John Quinlan, who has run the much-respected Vangard Gallery in Macroom for nine years, moved this month "lock, stock, and barrel" into new premises in Carey's Lane in Cork city. The opening show is by Bridget Flannery, and there will be shows later this year by Janet Pierce, Simon English, and Maria Simmonds-Gooding. "It's the gallery's mission to promote Irish art and contemporary Irish artists, and we need to be more accessible to the market," he explains. "We had fantastic exhibitions in Macroom, but we had to work hard to get people out to the gallery."
Business is good at the Vangard, and there is a huge increase in the number of young buyers in their 20s. "Five years ago, these buyers didn't exist. People have better-paid jobs at a much younger age now. We're part of modern Ireland now, aren't we? People have much more sophisticated tastes. They don't want prints for £39.99 on their walls any more; they want original art, and they can afford it."
The old Vangard had a craft shop alongside it, and Quinlan says that "you wouldn't believe the number of chopsticks and Japanese bowls we've sold there in the last year. Who'd ever have imagined that chopsticks would be a best-selling item in Macroom? It's a sign of our affluence and how our tastes have expanded."
"In 18 months, I've seen the average age of buyers drop by two decades," says Paul O'Kelly, curator of the Oisin Gallery's New Room on Westland Row, Dublin, which opened at the back of the existing gallery in November. He has the classic story that every gallery has somewhere. Just before Christmas, a man "of about 30" came in off the street and bought an original Bridget Reilly for £30,000, putting down a deposit of £1,000 on the spot and returning with a bank draft for the balance the next day. "He had never heard of Bridget Reilly, he didn't own a single painting, but he had bought a new house, wanted to decorate it, and liked the colours in the piece," explains a politely baffled O'Kelly.
Although the Oisin has been around for many years, the New Room opened as a response to what O'Kelly sees as an increasing sophistication in taste. "For a long time, we sold tame watercolours to the over-50s. But there are so many people making fortunes now, who are in their 20s and 30s, and there are a lot of clever buyers out there who are cultivating both their passion for art and their eye. The best buyers buy art both as an investment and because they like the work."
The New Room opened with a sell-out show by Katy Simpson, which the commercially-minded O'Kelly sees as a double-edged result. "Once the paintings in an exhibition are sold, they're dead space on the walls," he says. "They're taking up room. We'll have to see how the New Room goes: I'd like it to be more like a shop than a gallery, but we do want to give exhibition space to young artists like Katy Simpson who we believe will become international names. We'll be showing Nicky Carey this year."
Carey's disturbing, spiky creatures certainly couldn't be more different from what O'Kelly described as "the tame watercolours" of old.
