On The Town: 'Things to do with shop windows . . . things that we are not aware of" in the urban landscape feature in the work of Felicity Clear, which is currently on view at the Rubicon Gallery, Dublin.
The shops on her journey to her Temple Bar studio each day, passing by the Ilac Centre, Moore Street, Liffey Street and Jervis Street, have influenced her work in the exhibition, called Dirty, Pretty Things, she said.
"There are darker undertones, and a suggestion that maybe this is not all that it should be," she said. "It's a whole lot of samples to make up a larger piece, maybe with feelings of claustrophobia."
Among those who came to the opening were fellow artists, Beth O'Halloran, Clea Van Der Grijn and Louise Cherry, whose own show in the Courthouse Art Centre in Tinahely, Co Wicklow, opens next month.
Also, Olivia Clear, the artist's sister, was there with her son, Lewis Murphy, and her partner, David Sholdice.
Freda Donoghue, a researcher at TCD's Centre for Nonprofit Management, said the paintings were "very, very different from her other work. This is smaller and more symbolic, with geometric patterns and flowers",
Fergus Feehily, whose own show opens at the Green on Red Gallery next week, was at the opening, along with fellow artist John Graham. Darragh Hogan and David Fitzgerald, both of the Kerlin Gallery, and Sarah Glennie, the Irish commissioner for the Venice Biennale, were there too.
The busy opening was presided over by Josephine Kelliher, owner of the Rubicon Gallery, who was just back from the ARCO art fair in Madrid, where Irish artists were represented by four Dublin galleries: the Rubicon, the Kerlin, the Green on Red and the Kevin Kavanagh.
Dirty, Pretty Things runs at the Rubicon Gallery, 10 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, until Saturday, Mar 26