ON THE TOWN/Catherine Foley: Irish and British artists arrived to view the work of Gary Hume, whose exhibition opened at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Kilmainham, Dublin this week.
Christopher Le Brun and Marc Quinn, who were among the UK artists, are both represented in another exhibition that opened in Dublin this week : the Contemporary British Art in Print at the Graphic Studio Gallery. Irish artists Pauline Flynn, Clare Langan and Bernadette Kiely also came to see the work.
Hume, the internationally renowned young star of Brit Art, slipped in to the opening with his mother, Jill Henshaw, and his two sisters, Kate Hume and Sally Harrington. His work has been shown all around the world - from Reykjavik to Buenos Aires and from Tokyo to San Francisco, said his mother proudly. "I'm quite a follower," she said.
Four women from Carlow - Noreen Whelan, Frankie Cole, Eithne Reddy and Helen Pender - were especially intrigued by the use of aluminium in Hume's work. "It's just to stop the paint cracking. It's just household paint on an aluminium support," said the artist, whose next show is in Madrid in September.
Gallery owner Kevin Kavanagh, who opens a show by Stephen Loughman in his premises on North Great Strand Street this week, attended the show, and Jerome O'Drisceoil, of the Green on Red Gallery, was there with his wife, Amanda Pathe, and their children Lilly (2) and Finn (seven weeks). Portraits by Alice Maher will go on view at Green on Red in two week's time, he said.
Enrique Juncosa, director of IMMA, and a great-nephew of the famous surrealist, Joan Miró, was attending his third opening since taking up the post in February, having left Madrid where he was assistant director of the Reína Sofia National Museum of Modern Art. Juncosa is also a published poet, whose fifth book is entitled Las Espirales Naranja (The Orange Coils).
He was 18 when Miró died he said, recalling him as "a very reserved man, very private. I remember him working all day".
The exhibition of work by Gary Hume, which comprises 30 pieces including portraits of Kate Moss, Michael Jackson and Patsy Kensit, continues until Sunday, June 22nd.