Dublin Contemporary opened last night, to the great and the good, and the rest of us savages are allowed in today! It’s a bit like a Dublin Biennale I guess, and has a variety of shows around Dublin, with venues such as Earlsfort Terrace, The Douglas Hyde, The RHA, The Hugh Lane and others being used.

The list of artists doesn’t exactly include any world greats, but does include someone I went to school with in Declan Clarke, reason enough for me to have a wander at least!

Tickets vary in price, but the main exhibition seems to be €15.

I remember being at a Howard Hodgkins exhibition in IMMA a few years ago, and having the place almost completely to myself. A few weeks, the same show had moved to the Tate Britain, and I was surprised to see a queue of a few hundred people waiting to get in, where the exhibition was being charged at £10 a head. I’m not sure Ireland is used to paying for it’s art, and I could see this exhibition struggling, hopefully I’m wrong!