The annual Glen Dimplex awards dinner is usually a relaxed and sociable affair, and this year's ceremony, which took place on Thursday, was no exception. The President, Mrs McAleese, did the official honours, first presenting Louis le Brocquy with a newly created award for a sustained contribution to the visual arts, and then announcing with a smile, that the winner of the 1998 award was Siobh Hapaska.
Siobhan, who is expecting a baby and was looking rather like one of her own delightfully curvy sculptures, looked suitably surprised and delighted. "Isn't it awful to be quite so transparent," she grinned later.
Aside from the discussion of the awards themselves, much of the gossip was about an exciting commission received by award-nominated artists, MacDermott and MacGough. The New York Times has set aside 10 pages for photographs taken by the pair with their old plate camera in their house in Baldonnel which is a shrine to the past - electricity is strictly frowned upon.
Tanya Kiang, director of the Gallery of Photography, was being endlessly asked to repeat the tale of how celebrity photographer Greg Gorman, whose show opened last night, arrived at the gallery at two in the morning with actor Mathew Modine in tow. The pair are old friends but bumped into each other by accident in Temple Bar and Greg decided to take Mathew, who is currently filming The American, to check out his work.