This large, well-lit gallery at the end of a serene Georgian street has a grand name to fit its exalted reputation as one of the most prestigious exhibition spaces for modern and contemporary art in Ireland. Indeed, if your name is affixed to any of the works on ever-changing display you must be doing something right in the artistic world, especially as the gallery has worked hard to shrug off its reputation for having conservative tastes and these days plays host to an increasingly challenging array of work. The big event is the Annual Exhibition, held in May, which shows the work of those artists deemed worthy enough by the selection committee, made up of members of the academy (easily identified amid the huge throng that attends the opening by the scholars’ gowns). The show is a mix of technically proficient artists, Sunday painters and the odd outstanding talent.