PP/S Gala Benefit Auction with Whyte’s at the Irish Georgian Society

Participating artists: Richard Gorman, Gillian Lawler, Michael Canning, Diana Copperwhite, Keith Wilson, Brian Maguire, Colin Martin, Nick Miller, Robert Ballagh, David Godbold, Gabhann Dunne, Alison Pilkington, Nevan Lahart, Sonia Shiel, David Eager Maher, Blaise Drummond, Amanda Coogan, Fergus Martin, Mark Garry, Gary Coyle, Padraig Spillane, Anna Rackard, Ann Quinn, Stehen Loughman, Beth O'Halloran, Aoibheann Greenan, Kathy Tynan, Peter Burns, Kevin Mooney, Ronnie Hughes, Niall de Buitlear, Mark Cullen, Gavin Murphy, Fiona Chambers, Jim Ricks, Bea McMahon, Ramon Kassam, Mark Swords, Colm Mac Athlaoich, Brian Fay, Wendy Judge, Brendan Earley, Mark O'Kelly, Orla Whelan, Gemma Browne, Brian Duggan, Daniel Lipstein

Pallas Projects/Studios and Whyte's auction house are proud to announce a Gala Auction Night

Online catalogue with live bidding

View pdf catalogue

The event will be opened on the night by Ardal O'Hanlon

The non-profit art space Pallas Projects/Studios has been breaking new ground for art projects all over Dublin since its inception in 1996, recent cuts however have cut deep at this artist-run institution’s capacity to continue developing opportunities for Irish contemporary art and the work of new artists.

In light of this, Pallas has enlisted the support of its friends and colleagues in the Irish art world – a vast reservoir of goodwill built up over 20 years – to hold a New York style gala fundraising auction with the help of Whyte’s Auctioneers and The Irish Georgian Society. With pop-up food and drinks circulating over the course of the evening, to the backdrop of the faded grandeur of the Octagonal room of the City Assembly House.

The fundraising auction will feature renowned Irish painters, already familiar to the auction house, while introducing emerging artists, alongside internationally-established mid-career artists, who are already selling work through the leading Irish contemporary and international galleries and art-fairs (such as Frieze, Basel, Miami Basel, and Art Rotterdam), and exhibiting at home in museums such as IMMA and The Hugh Lane, and far and wide in art biennales and international institutions. All involved are donating their work for this benefit night.

It will demonstrate the huge variety of work being produced by Ireland's contemporary artists, and show how much contemporary art is connected to the continuum of art history, dealing with aesthetics, style and concepts that can often be seen to channel and chart a line from the old masters – through Vermeer, Fragonard and Braque, to 20th century Irish painters Mary Swanzy, Mainie Jelltet, Louis le Brocquy, and Patrick Scott – right up to today.

The Auction, run by Whyte’s Auctioneers (who have graciously offered to forgo fees and commission for this event in support of the non-profit sector), will take place in the home of The Irish Georgian Society, who have donated the use of the hugely apt City Assembly House. Situated on the corner of Dublin’s South William Street, the City Assembly House was the first purpose built public art gallery in either Britain and Ireland (and possibly in Europe), built by the Society of Artists in Ireland between 1766 and 1771 with the expressed aim of promoting the work of Irish artists and providing an academy for the arts.

The evening will be a chance to introduce contemporary artists’ work to auction-goers and the public at large; demonstrate the range and diversity of contemporary art practice in Ireland today; and encourage Irish people to engage with and invest in the work of our living artists. At the same time, it will promote and help sustain a pillar of the grassroots non-profit sector – Pallas Projects/Studios.