Giving art as a present reveals your sensitive side but is far more complex and meaningful than giving socks. Ireland has a wide variety of sellers, from those that provide infinite print editions to private galleries and auction houses, where your charitable spending will soon increase by zeros.
When it sold for $195 million, or around €187 million, an Andy Warhol acrylic and silkscreen, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, became the most expensive piece of 20th-century art ever to be sold at auction.
We’ve compiled solutions to fit lesser budgets, assuming your budget is considerably lower. Look for the traditional “winter group show” at this time of year for all your art purchasing requirements as galleries tend to think the concept of a Christmas sale is simply too uncool.
Grilse Gallery
Since people rather than businesses produce art, it may be given as a unique, personalized present that shows the giver has made a particular choice.
The winter group exhibition at the Killorglin, County Kerry gallery continues until December 24th and features 20 well-known and up-and-coming artists.
Prices start at approximately €250; Notions by Debbie Godsell is priced at €375 unframed. Because they are often affordable, prints and drawings are available to everyone. They are really simple to mail when unframed.
Hen’s Teeth
Dublin 8’s Hen’s Teeth has the stylish, trendy, and unquestionably economical side of art gifts covered. Its year-end exhibition, Exhibition for Dogs, by Ruan Van Vliet, has sardonic and vivacious unlimited edition prints priced between €50 (for A3) and €80 (for A2), unframed.
International shipping and framing are also available. The Hen’s Teeth & Pals Christmas Superstore, which has additional prints, home goods, and presents to attract and divert, is now open on Mill Street, so you’ll find plenty of other things to entice. Also quite nice is the café.
The friendship gift
If you’re not really sure about the tastes of your loved one, you may give them the gallery friendship while still giving them the opportunity to explore art.
At Kilkenny’s Butler Gallery, the cost of friendship starts at €75, and the benefits — aside from the obvious feel-good factor — include invitations to exhibitions and special friends’ events, as well as discounts at cafes and galleries, all the way up to the ability to borrow pieces of art from the collection to hang in your home, at the more pricey patron level of €1,250.
A Royal Hibernian Academy connection comes with similar benefits, as well as the chance to tour studios and travel abroad. Individual buddy membership is reduced to €54 by Christmas 2022.
Up to your neck in art
A collection of silk scarves priced at €150 apiece has been produced in collaboration with nine international artists, including Alice Maher, Isabel Nolan, and Jesse Jones from Ireland.
Sales help fund the United Nations organization for reproductive health. You might want to buy an additional to keep or present more than one of these because they are lovely, opulent, and for a really worthy cause. Of course, it’s your choice whether to wear them or frame them.
Orla King’s football-fan-themed scarves, which were inspired by the vibes of the large blue Temple Bar building itself, are another example of Dublin’s Project Arts Centre joining the arty neckwear trend.
They were inexpensive at €20 each. On the theatrical front, you may spend €300 to present a statement — of up to 50 characters — on one of the theater’s lovely new seats.
Graphic Studio
In preparation for its yearly end-of-year members’ display, Dublin’s Graphic Studio encouraged artists to dream on canal banks. Therefore, if you, a friend, or a loved one have fond recollections of the Grand Canal, here is your time to express your concern.
Including ambient and other aquatic interpretations by Ed Milano, Josie McMorrin, Vaida Varnagiene, and Elke Thönnes, all pieces are €220 unframed, and €330 framed. Prior until January 31, 2023.
Limerick Printmakers
By providing thoughtful consideration to your gift-giving, you are demonstrating your thoughtfulness. You’re also providing the gift of constant, unceasing delight.
Through many significant changes in their lives, an artwork may stay with them and continue to provide them tremendous joy. Definitely, nothing to be sniffed at.
Including framed and unframed artwork from 70 studio participants, priced from $10 (for a tiny print) to $6,000. Suzannah O’Reily, Clare Blackwell, Fiona Quill, and Gavin Hogg are some of the members. 1–23 of December.
The Molesworth Gallery
Suppose the art enthusiast in your life doesn’t have a lot of wall space. In that case, Dublin’s Molesworth Gallery is a solid choice for jewel-like gifts because it has a reputation for dependably intriguing, frequently smaller works.
Check out the pieces by artists like Mollie Douthit, Helen Blake, and Gabhann Dunne (prices range from €550 to €700) as there is obviously more to it than just size.
