West Cork artist Sorcha Browning the pick of the bunch at RDS awards
Sorcha Browning, centre, at the RDS Visual Arts Awards with Glenn Loughran of BAVA Sherkin Island, Orla McDonagh of TU Dublin, and Jesse Jones, artist and BAVA Sherkin course coordinator. Picture: Emma Jervis
The RDS Visual Art Awards have been described more than once as the Irish equivalent of the Turner Prize, showcasing the work of emerging artists, and providing support at a crucial stage in their careers.
As it happens, however, the Irish initiative is more generous and has a greater reach; the Turner presents £25,000 to a single British artist, while the RDS Awards, with a value of more than €40,000, are presented in six categories, and the awards exhibition, currently showing at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin, features the work of 10 shortlisted artists, all of them recent graduates from colleges around the country.
